The economic integration of the Amazon (1930-1980)

Author(s)

Thomas Henrique de Toledo Stella

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Economia
• Defense date: 2009-11-09

Examining board members

Wilson Cano; Claudio Schuller Maciel; David Ferreira Carvalho

• Advisor: Wilson Cano

Abstract

The integration of the Brazilian Amazon in the national economy began only when the primary-export base of the region has reoriented from the foreign market for the national domestic market in the 1930s. However, its economy primarily extractive and agricultural has origins much earlier, referring to the beginning of Portuguese colonization from 1616. Despite the experience of extractive economy, the region only became integrated commercially with metropolis with mercantilist polices of "economic valorization", adopted since 1750. The opening of the ports in 1808 encouraged the region to integrate into the periphery of the international market. With the increasing demand for Amazonian rubber after 1850, especially with industrial use of vulcanization process in the capitalists centers, the product exports rose, reaching its peak between 1910-1912. What followed was the decline that exposed the contradictions of this primary-export model. During the periods of Cologne, Empire and First Republic, Amazon remained virtually isolated from trades with other regions of Brazil, focused almost exclusively abroad. The crisis of "1929" shook the primary-export model in the country, which changed its pattern of accumulation to a new one of industrialization and market integration. With the economic transformations in the country since 1930, the domestic market began to absorb traditional Amazonian products such as rubber and nuts, and became the new target of others as the hard fibers of jute, malva and guaxima. The State increased its presence in the region, has allocated resources in the Constitution of 1946, and presented an Economic Valorization Plan in 1953. In the second half of 1950s, began to implement polices of regional development, responsible for the construction of major highways connecting eastern and western Amazon to Brasilia. As the industrialization was proceeding in the center, the region was seen as an economic frontier expanding. The interest of domestic and foreign capital for raw materials and Amazon lands grew. The concern of Military dictatorship (1964-1985) led to rethinking the strategy planning. The "Operation Amazon" in 1966 was a major fiscal stimulus package, drawing on a system of regional planning, with the contribution of public investment in agricultural, in livestock and in mineral sectors. The effective implementation of Manaus Free Zone (ZFM) since 1967 has introduced an industrial production and the Amazon economy begin to leave to be exclusively primary. In the 1970s, the Brazilian economy increased significantly, and the Amazon region has undergone structural changes of large-scale, resulting from strong public and private investment. The main reasons of this process were the maturation of industrial investments in ZFM, implementation of economy plans to the infra-structure, opening of roads, settlements, and agriculturals, minerals and livestocks clusters. At the end of the period 1970-1980, the Amazon was already more integrated commercial, physical and productive with the country, and was back to export in large scale, especially minerals. The economic integration of the Amazon between 1930 and 1980 had as resulted the transformation of the productive structure of the region, and the implantation of a wild and predatory capitalism, with precarious relations of production coexisting with new. This process, with a large extent for the State, demonstrated mistakes that must be as example for a sustainable form of development for the region. (AU)