The coffee culture was, in the period of the Old Republic, mainly in the phase known as "republic of oligarchs" (1894-1930), the main engine of the Brazilian economy. This product led exports at the time, followed by rubber, sugar and other inputs. The state of São Paulo led the coffee production in this period and also determined the guidelines of the political scenario at the time. The coffee economy results in three processes that complement each other: the intensive immigration of foreigners to Brazil, urbanization and industrialization.
Since the second half of the 19th century, still at the time of the Second Empire, the immigration of foreigners, especially Europeans, was encouraged by the Brazilian government. The reason for such promotion was the need for free and qualified labor to work on the coffee plantations. Given that, gradually, slave labor, which was used until then, became the object of dense criticism and pressure by abolitionist and republican political groups. In 1888, slavery was abolished and, in the following year, the Proclamation of the Republic, facts that intensified immigration and also the permanence of immigrants in the worked lands, becoming
settlers.Some time later, specifically after the end of the First World War in 1918, a new wave of migration headed for Brazil. At that time, the coffee economy became an economic complex with several extensions. Immigrants who came looking for work in the coffee plantations often ended up moving to the urban centers that were beginning to emerge at that time. The urbanization process in cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo was developed, in general terms, to facilitate the distribution and flow of coffee, which was directed towards exports. The expansion of the railways that took place during this period, for example, was planned to make this process more fluid.
The presence of immigrants in urban centers, in turn, as reported by historian Boris Fausto, in his HistoryofBrazil, provided for the emergence of salaried urban jobs and other sources of income such as handicrafts, backyard factories and the proliferation of liberal professions. The junction of these new forms of immigrant work with the urban structure developed by the complex coffee tree favored the flow of manufactured products and the consequent development of industries in the centers urban areas.
Currently, São Paulo is one of the largest urban centers in the world with large industries and strong commerce.*
Around 1880, there was already the presence of several factories in Brazil, but without a really significant structure. However, around the 1910s and 1920s, industrial activities were already quite expressive in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Through the intense export of coffee and the import of other products necessary for the Brazilian domestic market, several structures of factory machinery also docked in Brazilian lands, as many coffee producers also started to invest in factories.
The main types of industrial activities in the period were related to the following sectors: textile (fabric production), beverages and food. Agricultural modernization contributed decisively for the industry to develop within the aforementioned sectors. And, for industrial production to be stable, it was also necessary to control the value of the Brazilian currency. The reason for this control was not to run the risk of having the main export product, coffee, devalued in the international market. So, sometimes, the Brazilian government prioritized coffee, ignoring industrial activity. This fact demonstrates that it was only in the Vargas era, from the 1930s onwards, that there was an economic policy in Brazil that was really focused on full industrial development.
It is worth noting, however, that in urban centers, in addition to the proliferation of factories and salaried workers, it was also formed in this period the first workers' organizations with the purpose of protesting for better working conditions, among others requirements. Anarcho-syndicalism became notorious among Brazilian workers in the 1920s, influenced by the ideas of the Italian anarchists of the same period, who arrived here through Italian immigrants with experience in factory work.
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* Image credits: Shutterstock and Filipe Frazao
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/republica-cafe-industrializacao.htm
