In his best-known work , From Barter to Slavery... , Marchant went beyond the theoretical debate and sought to analyse the actual process of colonisation based on the available sources. More specifically, he studied the central issue of the period: the relations between the Portuguese and the indigenous people, especially the forms of exploitation of indigenous labour.

From a chronological point of view, the first form of labour exploitation happened through the exchange or barter of European products, notably tools , with the Indians. This allowed the Portuguese to obtain labour, food , and other goods, including slaves. For example, the usage of brazilwood was made possible thanks to this arrangement, which was essential in the early days of the colony. The expansion of the Portuguese presence after the creation of the captaincies, with a growing need for labour—not only circumstantial but daily—meant that the Indians began to demand more valuable products, including weapons, or simply refused to serve the newcomers. This ended up making the arrangement unfeasible. This exhaustion of the possibilities of exchanging labour for goods varied from captaincy to captaincy according to the pace of development of productive activities, especially sugar production. Voluntary forms of labour were increasingly replaced by compulsory forms, including slavery, which in turn motivated a growing resistance from the indigenous population, leading to open and widespread conflict in the various captaincies in the 1540s. This culminated in the destruction of mills, farms , and even the captaincies of Bahia and São Tomé (today the northern region of the state of Rio de Janeiro).

In general terms, the inability to maintain the barter arrangement led the settlers to seek to enslave the indigenous people, which originated conflicts that jeopardised the process that was based exclusively on hereditary captaincies. In turn, this forced the Crown to intervene with the creation of the General Government in 1548 to avoid the complete destruction of the first colonial centres. In the last decades of the 16th century, however, the correlation of forces on the coast was inverted , and the Portuguese went on the offensive, consolidating their hold on the territory, enslaving the defeated Indians , and thus enabling a major growth of the sugar economy.

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