Cotton and international trade in Brazil during the Industrial Revolution

• Grant number: 14/04151-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: June 01, 2014
• End date: January 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Renato Perim Colistete
• Grantee: Thales Augusto Zamberlan Pereira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 15/02414-2 - The cotton trade and Brazilian foreign commerce during the Industrial Revolution, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

A crucial factor for economic growth in the United States during the nineteenth century was its market for cotton exports, the main input of the Industrial Revolution. However, before the rise in North American trade, between 1760 and 1820, the Brazilian northeast exported increasing amounts of cotton, remaining as the third largest supplier for England until the 1860s. Using the cotton region of the Southern United States as a benchmark, this research seeks to understand the decline of Brazilian regions that produced and exported the most important commodity of international trade in the nineteenth century. The economic history literature of the last decade has researched under different points of view the different development paths between the Americas. However, these studies faced a number of difficulties controlling for factors of heterogeneity between countries. Analyzing the cotton production this research uses regions of Brazil and the United States which had a greater degree of homogeneity to understand different trajectories of development. Similar to Pernambuco, Maranhão and Bahia, the southern states of the United States - the center of cotton production - were societies with monoculture, slavery, low rates of immigration and limited access to political rights. Nevertheless, the southern United States has developed faster than the cotton regions in Brazil and currently has a per capita income on average six times higher than the Brazilian northeast. The proposed research also will seek to rebuild foreign trade and fiscal structures of cotton producing provinces. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

PEREIRA, T. H. A. L. E. S. Z. A. M. B. E. R. L. A. N.. Taxation and the stagnation of cotton exports in Brazil, 1800-60 dagger. ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, v. 74, n. 2, JAN 2021. (14/04151-6)

THALES AUGUSTO ZAMBERLAN PEREIRA. Poor Man's Crop? Slavery in Brazilian Cotton Regions (1800-1850). Estud. Econ., v. 48, n. 4, p. 623-655, 2018-12-00. (14/04151-6)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

PEREIRA, Thales Augusto Zamberlan. The cotton trade and Brazilian foreign commerce during the industrial revolution. 2017. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA/SBD) São Paulo.