| Honorific-Prefix: | His Lordship |
| The Viscount of Balsemão | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | GCA |
| Office: | Secretary of State for the Internal Affairs of the Kingdom |
| Predecessor: | José de Seabra da Silva |
| Successor: | The Count of Vila Verde |
| Term Start: | 6 January 1801 |
| Term End: | 14 April 1804 |
| Monarch2: | Maria I of Portugal |
| Office2: | Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and War |
| Predecessor2: | Viscount Vila Nova de Cerveira |
| Successor2: | Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho (as Secretary of Foreign Affairs) António de Araújo e Azevedo (as Secretary of War) |
| Term Start2: | 15 December 1788 |
| Term End2: | 6 January 1801 |
| Monarch3: | Joseph I of Portugal |
| Office3: | Portuguese Minister to Great Britain |
| Predecessor3: | João Filipe da Fonseca |
| Successor3: | Cipriano Ribeiro Pereira |
| Term Start3: | 8 July 1774 |
| Term End3: | 5 September 1788 |
| Monarch4: | Joseph I of Portugal |
| Office4: | Captain-General of Mato Grosso |
| Predecessor4: | João Pedro da Câmara |
| Successor4: | Luís de Albuquerque de Melo Pereira e Cáceres |
| Term Start4: | 3 January 1769 |
| Term End4: | 13 December 1772 |
| Birth Date: | 1735 11, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Leomil, Moimenta da Beira, Portugal |
| Death Place: | Belém, Lisbon, Portugal |
| Spouse: | Catarina Micaela de Sousa César de Lencastre |
| Occupation: | Politician |
| Signature: | Assinatura Visconde de Balsemão.svg |
D. Luís Pinto de Sousa Coutinho, 1st Viscount of Balsemão (27 November 1735 – 14 April 1804), was a Portuguese nobleman, politician, colonial administrator, and diplomat.
The first of many government posts, Sousa Coutinho was chosen to serve as Captain-General of Mato Grosso, in Brazil, from 1769 until he was forced to resign in 1772 due to having contracted a severe ophthalmia.[1]
Luís Pinto de Sousa Coutinho was the Portuguese envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary in Great Britain from 1774 to 1788, from which he accompanied important events such as the American Revolutionary War, and negotiated Portugal's entry into the First League of Armed Neutrality.[2] He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1787.[3]
Balsemão wrote the 1778 manuscript, Extrait des Notes fournies à Mr l’Abbé Raynal, which describes colonial administration in Brazil and offers a vision of state building. In a 1780 version of the manuscript, Balsemão defended what he said was the benign nature of slavery in Brazil.[4]
He was made Viscount of Balsemão by Prince Regent John by decree of 14 August 1801, after having occupied several government posts.[1]