the name refers to the land that portuguese colonial administrators had chosen to improve communication, settlement, and the economic exploitation of brazil’s resources and of its other colonies. its "royal" name reflects the economic ideologies of mercantilism, which proposed that colonies existed for the purpose of supplying the metropole with resources. to protect colonial assets from piracy and smuggling, these roads became the only authorized paths for the movement of people and goods. opening other routes constituted a crime of "lèse-majesté." it was similar to the spanish "caminos reales" (royal paths) or spanish colonial puerto rico's "carretera militar" (military roads), which ensured the flow of goods and the movement of troops in the colonies.