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Manaus, 1910: Portrait of a Boom Town

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

E. Bradford Burns
E. Bradford Burns*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles
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Extract

Boom and collapse characterized the history of the Brazilian rubber industry. Its rise and fall followed a pattern well established by dyewood, sugar, gold, diamonds, tobacco, cotton, and cacao. The story of these industries points out one of the major themes in Brazilian history: the recurrence of economic cycles during which one product of the soil dominates the development of the entire country or a large part of it. This cyclical development prompted the Brazilian economist J. F. Normano to conclude: “The history of Brazilian economy is a sensational record with amazing fluctuations. It is a history of the appearance and disappearance of entire industries.” A team of American economists sent to study the economy in the late forties concurred.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , July 1965 , pp. 400 - 421
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1965

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References

1 Material for this article was gathered while the author visited Manaus in 1960 and 1963. I am grateful to officials at the Biblioteca Estadual, the AssociajSo Commercial, and the Instituto Geográfico e Histórico do Amazonas for their cooperation in locating materials. Conversations with several old-time residents of Manaus who reminisced freely and fondly about 1910 or “thereabouts” helped me greatly to understand the period better.

2 Brazil, A Study of Economic Types (Chapel Hill, N. C, 1935), p. 18.

3 Wythe, George, Wright, Royce A., and Midkiff, Harold M., Brazil, An Expanding Economy (New York, 1949), p. 37 Google Scholar.

4 Statistics for the state and its capital can be found in Agnello Bittencourt, Ckorographia do Amazonas (Manaus, 1925).

5 João Nogueira da Mata, Flagrantes da Amazonia (Manaus, 1960), p. 125.

6 Relatório da Sociedade Portugueza Beneficente do Amazonas (Manaus, 1911), Annex No. 6.

7 Associação Commercial do Amazonas, Slate of the Amazonas, Brazil (New York, 1912), p. 114.

8 Jornal do Commércio, Manaus, April 14, 1910, p. 3.

9 Booth, Margaret, An Amazon Andes Tour (London, 1910), p. 24 Google Scholar.

10 O Grande Anunciador, Manaus, December 17, 1910, p. 3.

11 The management of the Alhambra Theater spoke proudly of its newly acquired Edison machines which would help the public “to divert itself deliriously.” Jornal do Commércio, June 2, 1910, p. 3.

12 A longer and more detailed account of the theater season of 1910 can be found in Genesino Braga, Fastigio e Sensibilidade do Amazonas de Ontem (Manaus, I960), pp. 83-94. Both the Jornal do Commércio and the Diaro do Amazonas carried frequent accounts of the season during the months of July and August.

13 La Unión, Manaus, January 1, 1910, p. 9; A Palavra, Manaus, August 27, 1910, p. 3.

14 Ibid., p. 4.

15 Diario do Amazonas, Manaus, July 19, 1910, p. 1.

16 Ibid., July 15, 1910, p. 1.

17 Jornal do Commércio, March 17, 1910, p. 1.

18 Braga, Fastigio, 86; Diario do Amazonas, September 2, 1910, p. 4.

19 Estado do Amazonas, Mensagem … pelo … Governador, 1910 (Manaus, 1911), p. 45.

20 Ibid., p. 34.

21 Archivos da Universidade de Manetos, Manaus, Anno IV, Vol. IV, No. I l l, p. 123.

22 Estado, Mensagem, p. 130.

23 J. F. Woodroffe and H. H. Smith, The Rubber Industry of the Amazon (London, 1915), p. 15.

24 Ibid.

25 Associacao Commercial, State, p. 120.

26 Ibid., p. 44.

27 Estado, Mensagem, p. 26.

28 Marie R. Wright, The New Brazil (Philadelphia, 1907), p. 393.

29 Brazil; Its Provinces and Chief Cities (London, 1866), p. 358.

30 The Amazon and Madeira Rivers (Philadelphia, 1875), p. 40.

31 Moog, Vianna, Bandeirantes e Pioneiros (Rio, 1957), p. 240 Google Scholar; Filho, Cosme Ferreira, A Borracha na Economía Amazónica (Manaus, 1952), p. 5.Google Scholar

32 de Carvalho, Delgado, Historia Diplomática do Brasil (São Paulo, 1959), pp. 221–227.Google Scholar

33 Wright, The New Brazil, p. 381; Revista da Associação Commercial do Amazonas (February 1911), pp. 9-10.

34 Wright, The New Brazil, p. 394.

35 Figures for this total were taken monthly from the Revista da Associação Commercial do Amazonas, February 1910 - January 1911.

36 Bittencourt, Chorographia, p. 191.

37 March 4, 1910, p. 1.

38 Jornal do Commércio, March 9, 1910, p. 1.

39 Revista da Associação Commercial do Amazonas, May 10, 1910, pp. 2-3.

40 Ferreira Filha, A Borracha, p. 10.

41 Guidacci, Jorge (ed.), Annuário de Mandos (Lisbon, 1913), Part IV, p. 55Google Scholar; Revista da Associação Commercial do Amazonas (February 1911), pp. 18-19.

42 Estado de Amazonas, Relatório da Directoría do Banco Amazonense (Manaus. 1911), p. 9.

43 Associação Commercial, STATE, p. 40

44 Elliott, L. E., Brazil Today and Tomorrow (New York, 1917), p. 205 Google Scholar.

45 July 31, 1910, p. 4.

46 Associação Commercial, State, p. 132.

47 Estado do Amazonas. Relatório da Directoría, p. 7; Associação Commercial, State, p. 132; Estado do Amazonas, Relatório da Directoría do Banco Amazonense (Manaus, 1912), Annex No. 6.

48 Elliott, Brazil, pp. 187-188.

49 Revista da Associação Commercial do Amazonas (June 1910), p. 2.

50 Ibid., (February 1911), p. 7.

51 Tráfego do Porto de Manóos … durante o armo de 1910 (Manaus, 1911), Mapa L-l.

52 La Unión (Manaus), October 20, 1909, p. 5.

53 John Melby, “Rubber River: An Account of the Rise and Collapse of the Amazon Boom,” Hispanic American Historical Review, XXII (August 1942), 462.

54 Lopes Goncalves, The Amazon (New York, 1904), p. 8.

55 Estado do Amazonas, Mensagem . . . pelo … Governador … 1911 (Manaus, 1912), “Thesouro Público,” p. 3.

56 Associação Commercial, State, p. 38.

57 Revista da Associacao Commercial do Amazonas (February 1911), p. 22.

58 Estado de Amazonas, Mensagem … pelo … Governador … 1910 (Manaus, 1911), p. 370.

59 A Borracha, p. 7.

60 Revista da Associação Commercial do Amazonas (December 1910), p. 2.

61 Associação Commercial, State, p. 38.

62 Ibid., pp. 38-39. The federal government obtained most of its income by levying import duties; the state governments received most of their income by levying export duties. Elliott, Braztt, p. 203.

63 Afonso Arinos de Melo Franco, Urn Estadista da República (Rio, 1955), II, 650.

64 Miranda, Bertino (ed.), Annaes do Congresso Commercial, Industrial e Agricultural do Amazonas (Manaus, 1911), p. 345.Google Scholar

65 Elliott, Brazil, p. 190.

66 Lawrence, James Cooper, The World's Struggle with Rubber, 1905-1931 (New York, 1931), p. 16.Google Scholar

67 Normano, Brazil, p. 38; Júnior, Caio Prado, Historia Económica do Brasil (São Paulo, 1962), p. 246.Google Scholar

68 Revista do Associação Commercial do Amazonas, December 1910, p. 3.

69 Ibid., p. 2.

70 July 23, 1910, p. 7.

71 Estado do Amazonas, Relatório da Directoria do Banco Amazonense (Manaus, 1911), p. 8

72 The problems of the Brazilian rubber industry are discussed briefly but well in E. C. Buley, North Brazil (London, 1914), pp. 114-123. The author correctly predicted on page 116, “The Brazilian rubber must be driven off the market, since it will be impossible to produce it so cheaply [as Asia].”

73 Estado do Amazonas, Relatório da Directoria (1911), p. 14.

74 Estado do Amazonas, Leis, Decretos e Regulamantos, XI (Manaus, 1911), p. 59.

75 Revista da Associação Commercial do Amazonas (March 1911), p. 6.

76 Melby, “Rubber River,” p. 463.

77 Ramayana de Chevelir, “A Bolha de Sabão,” Leitura (Rio de Janeiro), Feb.- March, 1964, p. 37.