while partially true, there is a very big caveat, at first it wad not like that at all, it was a textbook extracvist colony, that could only trade with their colonizers directly, all foreign trade was mediated by portugal

and even after the crown of portugal moved to brazil and brazil gained status of kingdom, and in a personal union with with portugal (thus estabilishing the united kingdom of portugal and brazil), the majority of the population was still slaves and that will still be case for a long time, the now Kingdom of Brazil still operated mostly as a colony, just now the capital to which it responds to is Rio de Janeiro and not Lisbon