In Segundo Reinado, we realized that the structures of labor relations in Brazil underwent important transformations. Under the insistent pressure of the British authorities, the imperial government was incorporating actions that prevented the expansion of slave labor. With the express prohibition of the slave trade, in 1850, the great coffee growers were having enormous difficulties to acquire labor capable of supplying their demand.
One of the first alternatives launched for such an impasse was the so-called interprovincial slave trade. In this case, the large planters of the Southeast region acquired the idle slaves located in the Northeast region. The availability of this workforce occurred due to the agricultural crisis that hit producers Northeast, mainly due to the decrease in the price obtained in the sale of sugar cane, from the cotton and tobacco.
According to some estimates, this practice was responsible for the displacement of approximately 200,000 slaves across Brazilian territory. However, this solution soon proved ineffective with the growing expansion of coffee plantations. In a short time, the great demand for slaves ended up turning them into a high-value commodity that reduced the profits of the coffee growers. Thus, the employment of European immigrant labor became the cheapest and most viable alternative.
The first to employ European salaried labor was the senator and farmer Nicolau de Campos Vergueiro. Between 1847 and 1857, he brought several families of Portuguese, German, Swiss and Belgian origins to work in a partnership system. In this type of arrangement, the landowner paid all travel and accommodation expenses for the employees. Upon arriving here, the foreign colonist worked until he paid off his debts and shared in the profits made on the plantation.
Before long, other farmers copied this same strategy in obtaining labor. It is worth noting that, accustomed to the exploitation of slaves, many coffee growers imposed disadvantageous working conditions on the settlers. From the 1870s onwards, the entry of European workers into Brazil was officially organized by the government. Taking advantage of the political disturbances in the Old World, the empire advertised the job opportunities that existed in Brazil.
In addition to meeting an economic demand, the entry of immigrants into Brazil was part of an ambitious social engineering project by intellectuals at that time. Taking Europe as a great model to be copied, many thinkers and politicians believed that immigration would open doors for the gradual “whitening” of the Brazilian population. In this sense, the racist expectation of reducing the “negative” presence of blacks and mulattos in the formation of the Brazilian people was projected.
By Rainer Sousa
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/a-chegada-dos-imigrantes.htm