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The Evolution of the Economic Role of the Brazilian State, 1889–1930

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Steven Topik
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Extract

The economic role of the Brazilian State has received much attention recently from economists. Those who have studied it generally assume that the State first became economically active on a large scale after 1930 when it fostered industrialization. They also assume, often implicitly, that politicians and bureaucrats have had a great deal of freedom of action in policy formulation and that greater state economic intervention increases national independence from foreign markets and capitalists.1

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Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , November 1979 , pp. 325 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

1 For examples of recent studies of the Brazilian State, see: Sérgio Henrique Abranches, Empresa estatal e capitalismo: uma análise comparada’, paper delivered at the 27th meeting of S.B.P.C. in Brasília, July 1976; Baer, Werner, Kerstenetzky, Isaac and Villela, Anníbal, ‘The Changing Role of the State in the Brazilian Economy’, World Development, No. 1(1973), 23–4;CrossRefGoogle ScholarDam, Sulamis, ‘Empresa estatal e politica econômica no Brasil’, unpublished manuscript of FINEP, Mar. 1977;Google ScholarFitzgerald, E. V. K., ‘Some Aspects of the Political Economy of the Latin American State’, Development and Change, No. 7 (1976), 119–33;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSuzigan, Wilson, ‘As empresas do governo e o papel do Estado na economia brasileira’, in Aspectos da partidpação do governo na economia (eds. Silva, Fernando A. Rezende da et al. ,) (Rio, IPEA/INPES, 1976), pp. 77–107;Google Scholarda Silva, Fernando Antônio Rezende, ‘A evolução das funçõcs do govêrno e a expansāo do setor público brasileiro’, Pesquisa e Planejamento, No. I (1971), 235–82;Google ScholarLeff, Nathaniel H., ‘Uma perspectiva a longo prazo do desenvolvimento e do subdesenvolvimento brasileiro’, Revista Brasileira de Economia, No. 26 (1972), 147–68;Google ScholarBaer, Werner, Richard Newfarmer and Thomas Trebat, ‘On State Capitalism in Brazil: Some New Issues and Questions’, inter-American Economic Affairs, No. 30 (1976), 69–92.Google Scholar

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7 I arrived at this conclusion about the Government's revenue as a share of the GNP by estimating Brazil's GNP for the years 1907, 1919, and 1926 from figures given in Anníbal Villela and Wilson Suzigan, Politica do governo e crescimento da economia brasileira, 1889–25 (Rio, IPEA/INPES, 1973), pp. 94, 241;Google ScholarSimonsen, Roberto, Evolução industrial do Brasil e outros estudos (ed. Carone, Edgard) (São Paulo, Editora Nacional e USP, 1973), p. 63;Google ScholarBaer, Werner, A industrialização e o desenvolvimento económico do Brasil (translated by Rodrigues, Paulo de Almeida, and ed., Rio, Fundação Getiúlio Vargas, 1975), p. 301.Google Scholar Brazilian revenue figures came from Wilenian's Brazilian Review, 11 Mar. 1926, pp. 303, 304. Revenue and GNP figures for the United States came from The Statistical History of the United States from Colonial Times to the Present (Stamford, Connecticut, Fairfield Publishers, 1965), pp. 141, 711, and for Great Britain from Phyllis Deane and Cole, W. A., British Economic Growth, 1688–1969 (2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, 1969), p. 333.Google Scholar

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13 Rio News, Rio de Janeiro, 17 June 1891, p. 1. For more on the Encilhamento,Google Scholar see Wileman, J. P., Brazilian Exchange, The Study of Inconvertible Currency (1896. Rpt. New York, Greenwood Press, 1969),Google Scholar and Taunay, Aifredo d'Escragnolle, O Encilhamento (1893, Rpt. Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Itatiaia Limitada, 1971).Google Scholar

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17 Villela, Poiutica do governo, p. 414.Google Scholar

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23 Ibid., pp. 314–16. For more on the defense of coffee, see Boris Fausto, ‘Expansão do café e política cafeeira’ in História geral da civilização brasileira, Vol. 8; Fausto, Boris (ed.), O Brasil Republicano, estrutura de poder e economia (Sāo Paulo, DIFEL/Difusão Editorial, 1975);Google ScholarHolloway, Thomas H., The Brazilian Coffee Valorization of 1906 (Madison, Wisconsin, The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1971);Google ScholarManuel, Carlos Pelaez, ‘Análise econômica do programa brasileiro de sustentação do café, 1906–1945’, Revista Brasileira de Economia, No. 25 (1971), pp. 5–212;Google ScholarTaunay, Affonso d'Escragnolle, História do café no Brasil, Vols. 9, 10 (Rio, Departmento Nacional do Café, 1939); Topik, ‘The Economic Role of the State,’ Chap. 4.Google Scholar

24 Villela, Politica do governo, pp. 314–16; Mensagem dirigida ao Congresso Nacional por Presidente Delfim Moreira, 3 May 1919 (Rio, Imprensa Nacional, 1919), p. 8.Google Scholar

25 da Fazenda, Ministerio, Relatorio, 1898, pp. 554, 556.Google Scholar

26 da Fazenda, Ministerio, Relatorio, 1918, p. VIII; Wileman's Brazilian Review, 30 April 1924, p. 555.Google Scholar

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28 Levy, História dos bancos, p. 71.Google Scholar

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30 Camara dos Deputados, Anais, 1923, 23 July, pp. 214, 245.Google Scholar

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33 Brasil Ferro Carril, 15 Sept. 1920, pp. 529, 543;Google ScholarWalle, Paule, Au Brésil, Aperçu Générale (Paris, Librairie Orientale & Americaine 1912), p. 8;Google ScholarMensagem dirigida ao Congresso Nacional pelo Presidente … Campos Salles, 3 May 1901, p. 28 and Mensagem of President Deodoro da Fonseca, 15 June 1891.Google Scholar

34 The Brazilian Review, 32 Nov. 1901, p. 768 and 17 Sept. 1907, p. 1073. Duncan, Public Operation of Railways, pp. 35–7; Commercio e Industria, July 1919, p. 245.Google Scholar

35 Duncan, Public Operation of Railways, p. 82.Google Scholar

36 Quoted in Brazilian Review, 7 May 1901, p. 320.Google Scholar

37 Quoted in Brazilian Review, 9 May 1899, p. 300.Google Scholar

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44 Geraldo Rocha, former head of the Brazil Railroad noted in Nacionalisino; politico e econónico (Rio, Oficinas da A Noite, 1937), pp. 7–9, that the Brazil Railroad requested that the State of Sāo Paulo take over the BR's Sarocabana railroad. Wileman's Brazilian Review, 25 Sept. 1917, p. 266 and Empreza de Informações Garantida, Brazil Railroad (Rio, Empreza de Informações Garantida, 1918) report that occasionally the Government purchased companies for less than the former owners desired as with the Novo Hamburgo railroad in Rio Grande do Sul or fell into arrears in making payments to the former owners as did the city of Salvador, Bahia, when it purchased a North American utility company.Google Scholar

45 The State of Sāo Paulo took over a few companies that had been profitable because the private firms were providing inadequate service: Esiado de São Paulo (São Paulo) 26 Apr. 1920, p. 813; Jornal do Comrnercio (Rio) 2 Nov. 1919, p. 2;Google ScholarGreenfield, Gerald Michael,‘Dependency and the Urban Experience: São Paulo's Public Service Sector, 1885–1913’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 10 Pt. I (05, 1978), 37–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 The Economist, 20 Dec. 1924, p. 1026 and 23 Dec. 1922, p. 1183, and 9 Dec. 1922, p. 1072.Google Scholar

47 Wileman's Brazilian Review, 10 Apr. 1930, pp. 479, 480.Google Scholar

48 Brazilian Review, 30 July 1901, p. 548; Wilernan's Brazilian Review, 22 Oct. 1924, pp. 1416–19.Google Scholar