Tropeiro

Tropeiro is the designation given to troop and commissions drovers of horse, cattle and mule moving between commercial regions and consumer centers in Brazil from the 17th century.

The cities of Taubaté, Sorocaba, Santana de Parnaíba and São Vicente in São Paulo, Viamão, Cruz Alta and Vacaria in Rio Grande do Sul, Lages in Santa Catarina and Castro in Paraná are some of the pioneer cities that stood out for the activity of their tropeiros.

Before the railways, and long before the trucks, the merchandise trade was done by tropeiros in the regions where there were no alternatives of maritime navigation or waterway for its distribution.

From the end of the seventeenth century, Minas Gerais, for example, demanded the formation of groups of merchants in the interior trade.

Initially called men of the way, traffickers or passers-by, the tropeiros became fundamental in the trade of slaves, food and tools of the miners.