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Railroads in Nineteenth-century Minas Gerais

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Peter L. Blasenheim
Peter L. Blasenheim
Affiliation:
Peter L. Blasenheim is Professor of History at The Colorado College, Colorado Springs.
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Extract

The growth of a transportation system in Minas Gerais, especially the construction of a rail network in the province's booming coffee region, the Zona da Mata (the Forest Zone) in the late Empire, is an important chapter in the state's history. A close look at railroads in the Mata and in Minas tells us much about politics and the power and influence of certain groups, particularly planters and planter-politicians. Conflicts over railroad concessions provoked much rivalry within the Mata, but all mineiros agreed that transportation was the most important issue of the day. Meanwhile, flumimnses and paulistas were more preoccupied with the labour crisis. Hindsight permits us to say that transportation is not the key to understanding the development of Minas, at least not to the extent that contemporaries thought it was. Ecological factors, labour conditions and the onset of the national overproduction crisis in 1896 had more to do with the rise and fall of coffee exports than did railroads. However, coffee planters from the wealthy Mata and other mineiros from the province's less prosperous regions always credited railroads with the good things that went with economic development.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , May 1994 , pp. 347 - 374
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

1 The state of the nineteenth-century Minas economy and the place of the Mata coffee zone in it has been the subject of much debate among historians of Minas in recent years. Several studies have laid to rest the traditional notion that the economy, with the exception of the dynamic Mata coffee region, had been stagnating since the gold and diamond mines of central Minas gave out in the mid-eighteenth century. In fact, the mineiro economy, based on agriculture and stock raising, mining and textiles as well as coffee exports grew steadily although slowly during the nineteenth century. The degree to which products other than coffee depended on the province's domestic markets or on external markets remains a point of controversy. See Martins, Roberto Borges, ‘Growing in Silence: The Slave Economy of Nineteenth-century Minas Gerais, Brazil’, unpublished PhD diss., Vanderbilt University, 1980Google Scholar; Filho, Amilcar Viana Martins and Martins, Roberto Borges, ‘Slavery in a Non-Export Economy: Nineteenth-century Minas Gerais Revisited’, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 63, no. 3 (08 1983), pp. 537–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar and the comments that follow; Slenes, Robert W., ‘Múltiplos de Porcos e Diamantes: A Economia Escravista de Minas Gerais no Século XIX’, Cadernos IFCH/UNICAMP, no. 17 (06 1985)Google Scholar; Libby, Douglas Cole, Transformaçáo e Trabalho em tima Economia Escravista: Minas Gerais no Século XIX (São Paulo, 1988)Google Scholar; Libby, , ‘Proto-Industrialisation in a Slave Society: The Case of Minas Gems’, Journal 0f Latin American Studies, vol. 23, no. 1 (1991), pp. 1–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The significant point is that taxes levied on Mata coffee exports generated 7; per cent of Minas's revenues in the 1890s.

2 My survey of the Mata press in the 1880s shows more ink spilled on transportation than on the emerging labour crisis. See, for example, Juiz de Fora's O Pharol, the region's most important journal for this decade, and the Gazeta do Juiz de Fóra which published in the early 1880s. This is not to say that matenses were unaware of the long-range consequences of gradual abolition and a declining slave population. They addressed this issue in the press, in the Assembly and at the famous Agricultural Congress held in Rio in 1878. See, for example, OImpartial (Juiz de Fora), 22 July 1870, p. 1; O Pharol, 14 Sept. 1882, p. 1; 16 Nov. 1883, p. 1; 17 May 1884; Annaes da Assembléa (1884), p. 2, (1888), p. 632; Congresso Agn'cola, Collecçào de Documentos (Rio, 1878), pp. 132–4, 152–5, 182–3; Lanna, Ana Lúcia Duarte, A Transformafao do Trabalbo (Campinas, 1988), pp. 44, 56, 71Google Scholar; Eisenberg, Peter, ‘A Mentalidade dos Fazendeiros no Congresso Agn'cola de 1878’, in Lapa, José Amaral, Modos de Produção e Realidade Brasileira (Petropolis, 1980), pp. 167–94Google Scholar. The matenses, these sources make clear, were somewhat less enthusiastic about immigrationist solutions than planters in western São Paulo and were more concerned with ways to secure, control and educate free Brazilian labour. What distinguished them from planters throughout the Centre-South, according to the Mata press, was their delayed and less intense response to the crisis than planters elsewhere in the coffee zone. This would suggest that slavery was more viable in the Mata than in Rio Province or São Paulo, perhaps because of the availability of slaves in the Centre of Minas: see Robert W. Slenes in ‘Notes and Comments’ following Martins Filho and Martins, ‘Slavery in a Non-export Economy’, p. 578.

3 Costa, Emília Viotti da, Da senzala à colónia (São Paulo, 1966), p. 160Google Scholar. See also Burton, Richard, Explorations in the Highlands of Brazil (London, 1869), pp. 49, 59Google Scholar; Castro, Celso Falabella de, ‘Primitivas estradas na Zona da Mata,’ Estado de Minas (Belo Horizonte), 24 01 1960 sec. 3, p. 3Google Scholar; Pedrosa, Manoel Xavier de Vasconcellos, ‘Zona silenciosa da historiografia mineira: A zona da Mata,’ Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro (hereafter cited as RIHGB), no. 257 (Rio, 10 12 1962), p. 135Google Scholar; O Pharol (Juiz de Fora), 28 Feb. 1883, p. 1; Echo do Povo (Juiz de Fora), 9 Nov., p. 2.

4 Iglésias, Francisco, Política económica do governo provincial mineiro, 1835–1889 (Rio, 1958), pp. 165–4, 197Google Scholar.

5 Halfeld, Geraldo, Henrique Guilherme Fernando Halfeld: Fundador da Cidade de Juiz de Fora (Juiz de Fora, 1970), p. 79Google Scholar; Iglésias, p. 156.

6 Castro, Celso Falabella de, ‘Francisco Leite Ribeiro na Zona da Mata’, Estado de Minas (Belo Horizonte), 4 10 1959, sec. 3, p. 3Google Scholar; ‘Primitivas estradas’, p. 3; Ribeiro, Armando Vidal Leite, A Jamilia Vidal Leite Ribeiro (Rio, 1960), pp. 253–60Google Scholar.

7 On the União e Indústria, see Bastos, Wilson de Limas, Mariano Prócopio Ferreira Lage (Juiz de Fora, 1961), pp. 34, 79–91Google Scholar; Estêves, Albino de Oliveira, ‘Mariano Procopio’, RIHGB, no. 230 (01 03 1956), pp. 145–54Google Scholar; Wells, James W., Three Thousand Miles Through Brazil, 2 vols. (London, 1886), vol. I, pp. 44–5Google Scholar.

8 Taunay, Affonso d'Escragnolle, Histoŕia do café no Brasil, 12 vols. (Rio, 1939–1941), vol. V, pp. 167–8Google Scholar; O Pharol, 19 Aug. 1882, p. 1.

9 Gerais, Minas, Provincial, Assembléa, Annaes no anno de 1872 (Ouro Prêto, 1872), p. 56; (1876), p. 51Google Scholar. (References to debates held in the Minas legislature will be cited as Annaes da Assembléa followed by the year of the session. This shortened form will also be used for citations from the state Annaes da Câmara [Chamber of Deputies], the state Annaes do Senado [Senate] and the annual Mensagem do Governador [governor's annual message] after the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889. All volumes of the legislative debates were published in Ouro Preto until 1898 when the official press moved to the new state capital at Belo Horizonte.) On road repairs as a percentage of the Minas budget, see Annaes da Assembléa (1882–9); Annaes da Câmara (1891–1906). See also O Pharol, 7 Nov. 1882, p. 1; 18 June 1895, p. 1; Minas Geraes (Belo Horizonte), 14/15 May 1903.

10 On the early years of railroading in Brazil, the Pedro Segundo, the Santos-Jundíai and the Paulista, see Saes, Flávio Azevedo Marques de, As Ferrovias de São Paulo 1870–1940 (São Paulo, 1981)Google Scholar; Matos, Odilon Nogueira de, Café e Ferrovias, 4th ed. (Campinas, 1990), chs. 3–5Google Scholar; Mattoon, Robert Howard Jr, ‘The Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro, 1868–1900: A Local Railway Enterprise in Sao Paulo, Brazil’, unpubl. PhD diss., Yale University, 1971, ch. 1Google Scholar; Laerne, C. F. van Delden, Brazil and Java: Report on Coffee Culture (London, 1885), ch. 7Google Scholar; Graham, Richard, Britain and the Onset of Modernization in Brazil, 185O–1914 (London, 1968), pp. 52–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Bénevolo, Ademar, Introdução à história ferroviária do Brasil (Recife, 1953)Google Scholar, Pessoa, Cyro Deiocleciano Ribeiro Jr, Estado descriptivo das estradas de ferro do Brazil (Rio, 1886)Google Scholar; Picanço, Francisco, Viaao ferra do Brazil (Rio, 1884)Google Scholar; Vasconcellos, Max, Vias brasileiras de communiçãfao: Estrada de Ferro Central do Brazil (Rio, 1935)Google Scholar. On the first Minas concession, see Annaes da Assemblèa (1872), pp. 229–31.

11 On railroads and the coffee frontier in the United States and Brazil, see Mattoon, 'The Companhia Paulista', p. 100; Nogueira de Matos, Cafeé Ferrovias, p. 11; Pedrosa, ‘Zona silenciosa’, pp. 140–41; Valverde, Orlando, ‘Estudo regional da Zona da Mata de Minas Gerais’, Revista Brasileira de Geografia, vol. 20, no. 1 (01 03 1958), p. 2Google Scholar;.

12 The Mata concessions, listed in Pedrosa, ‘Zona silenciosa’, p. 139, included the São João Nepomuceno (original Uńiao Mineira), 1871; Leopoldina, 1872; Chiador-São João Nepomuceno (União Mineira), 1872; Porto Novo-Meia Pataca (Leopoldina), 1872; Juiz de Fora e Ponte Nova (original Rio Doce), 1872; Juiz de Fora-Ponte Nova (revised Rio Doce), 1873; Ponte Nova-Aracuai (Leopoldina), 1875; Pirapetinga-Volta Grande (original Pirapetinga), 1876; Juiz de Fora-Jequitinhonha (Rio DoceLeopoldina), 1877; Recreio-São Francisco da Gloria (original Alto Muriae), 1878; Mar de Espanha-Rio Pardo (Uñiao Mineira), 1878. Jacob, Rodolpho, Minas Geraisno vige'simo seculo (Belo Horizonte, 1918), pp. 447–55Google Scholar, provides the best statistics on Minas railroads. Valadares is quoted in Annaes da Assemble'a (1877), pp. 601–5. Nominato de Souza is quoted in Annaes da Assemble'a (1872), p. 22;. See also, O Pharol, 24 May 1885, p. 2.

13 The transportation bottleneck is a major theme in mineiro economic and political history. See the first two chapters in Wirth, John D., Minas Gerais in the Brazilian Federation: iSSifp (Stanford, 1977), particularly pp. 27 and 54Google Scholar. That sound judgement rather than wishful thinking inspired mineiros from outside the Mata to support the province's railroad programme seems more credible in light of the recent studies, cited above in note 1, which reveal a more dynamic nineteenth-century mineiro economy than earlier proponents of the ‘stagnation’ thesis maintained.

14 Annaes da Assemblea (1888), p. 286.

15 On the Mata's shift into dairy farming, see Gerais, Minas, Financas, Secretaria das, Re/ato'rio, A Lavoura e Industria da t(ona da Mata pelo engenheiro Carlos Prates, inspector de industria, minas e coloniacao (Belo Horizonte, 1906)Google Scholar.

16 Annaes da Assembléa (1872), p. 215.

17 On the Pedro Segundo, see note 10, specifically, Ribeiro Pessoa Junior, Estudo descriptivo, pp. zoi–2, 221; Jacob, Minas Gerais, pp. 441–2; Estêves, ‘Mariano Procópio’, p. 145; Delden Laëme, Brazil and Java, pp. 174–75.

18 Graham, Britain and the Onset of Modernization in Brazil, p. 53; Mattoon, ‘The Companhia Paulista’, ch. 4. Events leading to the decree defining the Leopoldina as ‘national for certain purposes’ are described below.

19 Pedrosa, ‘Zona silenciosa’, p. 141.

20 The best source on the Leopoldina is Siqueira, Eduardo, Resumo histórico de The Leopoldina Railway Company Ltd. (Rio, 1833)Google Scholar. See also Contractos celebrados pela Presidência da Província de Minas Geraes (Ouro Prêto, 1893), pp. 153–5 290–8; Picanço, Viação ferra do Brazil, pp. 326–32; Ribeiro Pessoa Junior, Estudo descriptivo, pp. 32–5; Jacob, Minas Gerais, pp. 487–501; Centenário das ferrovias brasileiras (Rio, 1954), pp. 125–9. The first section of the Leopoldina cost 3,911 contos (US$2.2 million).

21 The sources on the Leopoldina include the juridical history and technical conditions on the Alto Muriaé and Pirapetinga. See also, O Pharol, 26 June 1883, p. 1; O Leopoldinense (Leopoldina), 25 Apr. 1883, p. 1.

22 On the União Mineira, see Picanço, Viação ferra do Brazil, pp. 334–38; Ribeiro Pessoa Jr, Estudo descriptivo, pp. 327–30; Jacob, Minas Gerais, p. 449; Annaes da Assembléa (1879), pp. 404–9, 593–8, 623–7; (1881), pp. 465–9. 520; (1882), pp. 317–18, 357; O Pharol, 17 April 1883, p. 1; 3 May 1883, p. 1; 17 June 1884, p. 1.

23 On the Piaú, see Picanço, Viação ferra do Brazil, pp. 334–8; Ribeiro Pessoa Jr, Estudo descriptivo, pp. 346–8; Jacob, Minas Gerais, p. 451; O Pharol, 2 March 1882, p. 1; 27 March 1883, p. 1; 1 April 1885, p. 1; 23 April 1890, p. 1.

24 Annaes da Assembléa (1877), pp. 601–5. On the province's financial onus, see Annaes da Assembléa (1888), pp. 280–7.

25 The construction of a rail network in the South zone is discussed below.

26 Alvim, Aristóteles, ‘Confrontos e deducções’, in Minas e o bicentenário do café no Brasil (Belo Horizonte, 1929), p. 81Google Scholar; Viotti da Costa, Da senzala à colónia, p. 174; Annaes da Assembléa (1878), p. 308; (1879), P. 59.

27 Annaes da Assembléa (1888), p. 261. The engineer is quoted in O Pharol, 30 April 1884, p. 1.

28 Quoted in Benévolo, Introdução a bistória ferroviária, p. 234. See also Pedrosa, ‘Zona silenciosa’, p. 140; Valverde, ‘Estudo regional’, p. 31.

29 Annaes da Assembléa (1881), p. 570.

30 On Melo Barreto, see Silva, Artur Vieira de Rezende e, Geneologia mineira, 4 vols. (Belo Horizonte, 1937–1939), vol. 3, p. 379Google Scholar. On Geraldo, São, see O Leopoldinense, 7 01 1882, p. 2Google Scholar; 25 April 1883, p. 1; Correio de Minas (Juiz de Fora), 20 May 1896, p. 1; Annaes da Câmara (1902), p. 30; ‘Acréscimos e retificações ao Arquivo Nobiliárquico’, Anuário do Museu Imperial, vol. 15 (Petrópolis, 1954), p. 189. On Lima, Souza, see Annaes da Assembléa (1872), pp. 20–21Google Scholar; O Leopoldinense, 3 Feb. 1895; Annaes do Senado (1904), p. 133. On Cecília, Santa, see Annaes da Assembléa (1882), p. 3Google Scholar; Analyse do Relatório da Presidência de Minas na parte relativa à Estrada de Ferro Rio-Doce e documentos offerecidos à Assembléa Provincial de Minas-Geraes (Rio, 1878), p. 54. On Cesário Alvim as attorney for the Leopoldina, , see Annaes da Assembléa (1877), p. 360Google Scholar.

31 Analyse do Relatório, pp. 52–4; Annaes da Assembléa (1879), p. 623.

32 Annaes da Assembléa (1879), p. 623.

33 Ibid., pp. 597–8.

34 O Pharol, 15 March 1883, pp. 2–3. On the Baron of Nepomuceno, São João, see O Pharol, 14 06 1883, p. 2Google Scholar; 16 June 1883, p. 2. On the Baron of Juiz de Fora, see Estêves, Albino de Oliveira, Album do município de Juiz de Fora (Belo Horizonte, 1915), p. 552Google Scholar; ‘Acréscimos e retificações’, p. 138. On the Baron of Helena, Santa, see Barão de Santa Helena: Noticias biographicas (Ouro Prêto, 1888)Google Scholar; Estêves, Álbum, pp. 522–3; O Pharol, 11 Dec. 1888, p. 1; Diário de Minas (Ouro Prêto), 17 Sept. 1888, p. 1; 7 Aug. 1889, p. 2; 30 Aug. 1889, p. 1. On the efforts of the three barons to secure funds for the failing Mineira, União, see O Pharol, 8 02 1883, p. 1Google Scholar; Annaes da Assembléa (1881), pp. 623–7.

35 O Pharol, 25 April 1885, p. 1; O Leopoldinense, 1 May 1885. On the amount of coffee carried by the Leopoldina and relative freight rates, see Analyse do Relatório, pp. 15, 21–2; Annaes da Assembléa (1878), pp. 147–9; O Leopoldinense, 1 May I885, p. 1. The Leopoldina is compared to other Brazilian railroads in O Leopoldinense, 4 March 1883, p. 1; Picanço, Viação ferra do Brazil, p. 331; Taunay, História do café, VII, p. 63; X, p. 24; Mattoon, ‘The Companhia Paulista’, p. 239; Jacob, Minas Gerais, p. 57.

36 On the juridical background to the Rio Doce dispute, see Analyse do Relatório, pp. 4–6; O Pharol, 5 May 1883, p. 2; Annaes da Assembléa (1898), pp. 341–3. On the position of the União Mineira, see Annaes da Assembléa (1878), pp. 145–6, 328, 360–71, 378–80, 407–15. In defence of the Leopoldina, see pp. 146–7; (supplement), pp. 25–32.

37 Analyse do Relatório, pp. 3–35, 40.

38 On regionalism and the Doce, Rio dispute, see Annaes da Assembléa (1878), pp. 328–365Google Scholar. On the vote in the Assembly, see p. 430. The Minas president's decree in favour of the União Mineira is in Contractos Celebrados, p. 230. The Imperial decree reversing this decision is also in Contractos Celebrados, pp. 6–7.

39 Annaes da Assembléa (1879), p. 245.

40 Annaes da Assembléa (1884), p. 740; Gazeta do Juiz de Fora, 8 Jan. 1881, p. 1.

41 On Drummond, , see Annaes da Assembléa (1880), pp. 643–5Google Scholar. On the Pomba extension see (1881), pp. 168–77, 255–6, 373–7, 379. On the Ponte Nova extension, see (1882), pp. 256–7, 623–4, 719–20, 768; (1883), pp. 190–2. See also all issues of O Pharol in November 1882 when the directors of the Piaú mounted their publicity campaign.

42 On fusion, see O Pharol, 2 March 1882, p. 2; 4 April 1882, p. 1; 17 April 1883, p. 1; 19 April 1883, p. 1; Annaes da Assembléa (1883), pp. 251–6.

43 Annaes da Assembléa (1884), p. 741; (1887), pp. 130–40, 360–70.

44 O Cataguazense (Cataguases), 15 Aug. 1886, p. 1.

45 On the Rio lines and their consequences for the Leopoldina, see Siqueira, Resumo histórico, pp. 4–10.

46 See, for example, Diário de Minas, 17 March 1889, p. 1; 24 March 1889, p. 1; 8 May 1889, p. 1; Irradiação (Leopoldina), 10 April 1889; O Pharol, 30 Aug. 1890, p. 1; 12 Sept. 1890, p. 1; 24 Dec. 1890, p. 1.

47 Annaes do Senado (1890), p. 189.

48 On the demise of the Leopoldina, see Siqueira, Resumo bistórico, pp. 5–14.

49 Annaes da Assembléa (1888), p. 281.

50 Jacob, pp. 447–8; O Pharol, 15; Dec. 1903, p. 1. On the Mogiana, see Marques de Saes, As Ferrovias de São Paulo and Nogueira de Matos, Café e Ferrovias, ch. 4.

51 Annaes da Câmara (1892), p. 69.

52 On the railroad boom in the South and the expansion of the coffee economy in that region, see Mensagem do Governador (1902) in Annaes da Câmara, pp. 27, 37.

53 On the Leopoldina, see note 47. On the later history of the Paulista, see Marques de Saes, As Ferrovias de São Paulo, ch. 4, conclusion; Graham, Britain and the Onset of Modernization in Brazil, p. 57; Mattoon, ‘The Companhia Paulista’, p. 239.