This book studies the Companhia de Comércio e Navegação do Mucury - CCNM, which was based in the Mucuri Valley, a region bordering the states of Bahia, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, in the 40s and 50s of the 19th century. With the aim of identifying the role of the CCNM and trying to understand whether it fulfilled the ideal of modernisation characteristic of Empire Brazil, the research revealed the way in which the CCNM was created and implemented according to the model of capitalist society. This is because analysing the documents allowed us to identify some contradictory aspects inherent to the ideals of progress and modernity in the 19th century.