The path of Paulistanos wealth in the first half of the 19th century

Author(s)

Maria Lucília Viveiros Araujo

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo. , gráficos, ilustrações, mapas, tabelas.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2003-08-13

Examining board members

Nelson Hideiki Nozoe; Carlos de Almeida Prado Bacellar; Raquel Glezer; Maria Cecilia França Lourenço; Renato Leite Marcondes

• Advisor: Nelson Hideiki Nozoe
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History
• Indexed in: Banco de Dados Bibliográficos da USP-DEDALUS
• Location: Universidade de São Paulo. Biblioteca Central da Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas; FFLCH/T ARAUJO, M.L.V. 2003

Abstract

This dissertation intends to identify the paths, the degree of accumulation, and the composition of the wealth of the people living downtown São Paulo, in the first half of of the 19th century. The information used to determine this was mainly collected from post-mortem inventories and census\' taken in Sao Paulo at that time. Using a sampling of 165 inventories, a number of procedures were used in order to verify the degree of wealth accumulation among Paulistanos at that time: the evolution of the average value of the gross estate was identified, the increase of the gross estate was compared, as well as the division of parent/child inventories, the increase in the gross estate of couples wills, and the increase rate of domestic slaves owned by this population. This procedure revealed that wealth increased in the timeline considered. The test of the possibilities of wealth dispertion from inventories - by local indebtedness, regional indebtedness or by the dispositions specified by the deceased in the wills - showed that dispertion of wealth by these factors was immaterial. The test of investment options showed that the wealthiest people invested mainly in the sugar industry (\"engenhos de cana de açúcar\") in rural areas. The less wealthy invested in the credit industry. The middle class prefered local investments. Part of the wealth spurred inner city commerce and part was invested in the expansion of new agricultural areas. We verified that these investments were instrumental in driving the economy as a whole. We did not find indications of economic decay, as was avered by some historians who wrote about the city (AU)