GALLOWAY. The Sugar Industry of Pernambuco During

The Sugar Industry of Pernambuco during the Nineteenth Century
Author(s): J. H. Galloway
Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 58, No. 2 (Jun., 1968), pp.
285-303
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers
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THE SUGAR INDUSTRY OF PERNAMBUCO
DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY'
J. H. GALLOWAY
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
ABSTRACT. During the nineteenth century, the abolition of slavery and advances in
the technology of manufacturing sugar led to the replacement of the Labat system of
cane sugar production by the central factory system. The resolution of a labor crisis
and the financing of central factories at a time when competition from beet sugar was
beginning constituted a challenge to which cane growing regions reacted differently.
Around the Caribbean, some long-established sugar colonies could not meet the chal-
lenge and their production declined or stagnated, whereas other colonies rose to im-
portance and prosperity. In Pernambuco, Brazil, the combination of a free population
which was gradually drawn into the sugar industry, investment of foreign as well as
domestic capital, and the appearance of new markets permitted the sugar industry to
survive, even to increase production, but not to prosper.
IN the historical geography of the cane- minor variations in the techniques of cultiva-
cultivating regions of the Americas, the tion and manufacture. Land holdings were
nineteenth century is of particular interest for large and as great an acreage was planted to
it spans the period of transition from one form cane as the terrain, labor supply, and capacity
of sugar production to another. Major changes of the mill would permit. The work of the
took place in land use, in population distribu- plantation was done by slaves who also culti-
tion, and in the structure of society, and a type vated some provision crops on small plots of
of plantation which had existed in the New land. Wind, water, or animals powered the
World since the beginning of colonial times mills, and in the boiling and curing houses,
passed from the scene. the brown muscovado, and whitish clayed
Early in the sixteenth century, the Spanish sugars were made. Rum and molasses were
established plantations on Santo Domingo. valued by-products. Life centered on the com-
Soon after, the Portuguese founded sugar plex formed by the plantation house and slave
colonies along the coast of Brazil, most suc- quarters, mill and workshops. The planta-
cessfully in Pernambuco and Bahia; and dur- tions were both units of production and nuclei
ing the seventeenth century, sugar plantations of population in what was generally a dis-
were spread through the islands of the Carib- persed settlement pattern. This old style of
bean by the English, French, and Dutch. In sugar production is frequently referred to as
all these colonies, from Brazil to the shores the Labat system after Pere Labat, a French
of Mexico, the organization of sugar produc- cleric, who lived in the West Indies at the
tion was basically similar, though there were turn of the eighteenth century and wrote de-
tailed descriptions of sugar production in the
Accepted for publication March 3, 1967. various islands.2 The Labat plantation was in
fact a classic example of a tropical plantation:
1This paper derives from a larger study of Per- foreign capital and imported labor growing
nambuco carried out at University College London. and processing a single crop for sale in tem-
The author would like to thank Professor H. C.
perate lands, an intrusive exotic in the host
Darby for his assistance during the period of research
and for his criticisms of the paper. The author grate- country.
fully acknowledges the financial support of the Can- The abolition of slavery and the advances in
ada Council, the Astor Foundation, and of University the technology of manufacturing sugar were
College London. Figures 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 were
drawn by M. Nash and C. Chromarty in the Depart-
the basic catalysts in the disruption of the
ment of Geography, University College London;
Figures 1, 2, and 5 by J. Wilcox, in the Department 2 Pere Labat, Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de L'Amerr-
of Geography, University of Toronto. ique (La Haye: P. Husson, 1724), 2 vols.
285
286 J. H. GALLOWAY June
Labat system. The disruption began during the larger scene of the transformation of the sugar
1790's, in the French colony of St. Domingue, industry of the Americas, the main trends of
now Haiti, with successful slave revolts. sugar production in the Caribbean during this
The end of slavery followed in different islands century are summarized below.
at different dates, until the connection be-
tween sugar and slavery was finally severed THE WEST INDIAN EXPERIENCE
by the freeing of the slaves of Brazil in 1888. It is possible to recognize in the West Indies
By mid-nineteenth century, technological ad-
three main types of response to the disruption
vances had culminated in the building of of the Labat system: one which led to a pro-
factories for the processing of sugar and these longed decline in sugar cultivation and, on
rendered the old mills obsolete and the self-
some islands, even to the virtual abandonment
contained plantations uneconomic. The fac-
of sugar as a cash crop; a second in which the
tories were capable of milling far more cane
sugar industry survived the transition from
per day and of extracting more juice from the
one system of production to another with slight
cane than the traditional Labat mills. More-
if any loss in output; and a third for which the
over, new refining techniques permitted the
nineteenth century was to prove an era of
factories to improve on the muscovado, and
expansion.
clayed grades of sugar. But factories were
expensive to build, and to operate them at Examples of the first response are numerous
capacity required more cane than the typical and include such major producers of the later
Labat plantation could provide. Companies eighteenth century as St. Domingue and Ja-
rather than individuals financed the construc- maica, some, like Martinque and Guadeloupe,
tion of factories and bought the surrounding of the second rank and many minor islands.
cane land or contracted with neighboring All had one factor in common: the planta-
planters for their crops. The new scale of tions occupied only a part of the cultivable
operations-factories instead of mills-and the land. Former slaves were thus able to aban-
location of factories in the midst of their sup-
pliers of cane gave this new system of sugar A summary of the history of sugar in the Carib-
production its name. The central factory sys- bean can be found in N. Deerr, The History of Sugar
(London: Chapman and Hall, 1949), 2 vols. For
tem brought changes in long-established pat-
the British Islands, W. L. Mathieson has examined the
terns of production and population distribu- emancipation of the slaves and its immediate impact on
tion and introduced a new foci of activity sugar production in British Slavery and Its Abolition
into the cane lands. 1823-1838 (London: Longmans, 1926) and British
Slavery and Its Abolition 1838-1849 (London: Long-
In the nineteenth century, therefore, the
mans, 1932). R. W. Beachey has written on the
sugar industry of the Americas was faced with
post-emancipation problems in The British West Indies
the problems of solving a major labor crisis Sugar Industry in the Late Nineteenth Century (Ox-
and of massive reorganization, at a time when ford: Basil Blackwell, 1957). The decline of sugar
world sugar prices were declining and cane in Jamaica is treated in more detail by D. Hall, Free
Jamaica 1838-1865 (New Haven: Yale University
sugar had to face competition from beet sugar.
Press, 1959), C. Eisner, Jamaica 1830-1930 (Man-
The reaction of the sugar growing regions to chester: Manchester University Press, 1961) and G.
the challenges of the century differed. The E. Cumper, "Labour Demand and Supply in the Ja-
amount of capital a region attracted, the maican Sugar Industry 1830-1950," Social and Eco-
ability to find and hold a market, the degree nomic Studies, Vol. 4 (1954), pp. 37-86 and "Popu-
lation Movements in Jamaica 1830-1950," Social and
of success in solving the labor problem and,
Economic Studies, Vol. 5 (1956), pp. 261-80. For Cuba
very important, the extent of cultivable yet see R. Cuerra y Sanchez, Sugar and Society in the
unoccupied land at the time of the emanci- Caribbean (New Haven and London: Yale University
pation of the slaves were interlinking factors Press, 1964), and for Puerto Rico, see S. Mintz, "The
Culture History of a Puerto Rican Cane Plantation,"
which governed the response each region was
Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 33 (1953),
to experience. The fortune of the Caribbean pp. 224-51, and "Labour and Sugar in Puerto Rico
producers has already been studied in part, and Jamaica 1800-1850," Comparative Studies in
and it is my purpose in this paper to examine Society and History, Vol. 1 (1958-59), pp. 273-83.
L. Joubert has written on "Les Consequence Geog-
the response made by the sugar industry of raphiques de L'Emancipation des Noirs aux Antilles,"
Pernambuco. To relate this response to the Les Cahiers, d'Outre Mer, Vol. 1 (1948.), pp. 8-118.
1968 PERNAMBUCO SUGAR INDUSTRY 287
don the plantations, move onto the unoccupied

lands to become peasant farmers, causing
sugar production to decline for the shortage
of labor. In St. Domingue, where the end of
slavery was followed by a collapse of public
order and by the expulsion or murder of the -> I ATLANTIC
white owner and managerial class, the in-
dustry was destroyed. The decaying irriga- OCEAN-
tion canals attracted malaria-carrying mos-
quitoes and as much for fear of disease as for
fear of being dragooned into the armies of
one or other of the contenders for power, the Pernambuco
population scattered from the cane lands into
the hills. Within a few years an opulent sugar B R AZIL 10
colony became an independent peasant state.
N~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Martinique and Guadeloupe, the decline in
production was shortlived, for the labor losses
were made good by the introduction of in-
dentured labor from Asia and even Africa.
The central factory system was rapidly intro-
duced so that by 1885, in Martinique, the
Labat system had almost disappeared. The
revival of the sugar industry of Jamaica re-
quired more than the restoration of cheap
labor by the immigration of East Indians. The
plantations were inefficient and production
had been declining even before the abolition FIG. 1. The location of Pernambuco.
of slavery. Many were sol encumbered with

debt that money could not be raised for im-
provements until ownership had been trans- slaves could move and they had little alter-
ferred to people with sounder financial back- native but to continue working for the plan-
ing. Central factories were not built until the tations. Little decline in sugar production
early twentieth century and production of took place, nor was there a diversifying of the
sugar increased only with World War I. racial composition of the population by the
On islands such as St. Vincent, Montserrat, immigration of indentured workers. But the
and the British Virgin Islands, the problems
plantations were far from prosperous; im-
provements and the introduction of the central
of reorganization and finding a new labor
factory system came~ very slowly.5,
supply were too great to be overcome; pro-
The third response-a large increase in
duction dwindled to a few tons of sugar a
sugar cultivation-is found in British Guiana,
year.4
Puerto Rico, and Cuba. At the end of the
Barbados, St. Kitts, and Antigua provide
eighteenth century, these colonies had new
examples of the second response. At the time and relatively unimportant sugar industries.
of abolition, plantations occupied virtually the In each there. was abundant room for ex-
entire cultivable area of these islands: there pansion, and all managed to overcome the
was therefore no land to which the former problems of labor, market, and finance,. Al-
though there was this common framework,
4Annual sugar production in Jamaica just before the British Guianan experience differed con-
the abolition of slavery was nearly 70,000 tons. This
siderably from the Puerto. Rican and Cuban.
declined rapidly to about 25,000-20,000 tons and did
not exceed this level until World War I. Produc- Following abolition in British Guiana, some
tion on both Martinique and Guadeloupe dropped
from 25,000-30,000 a year to below 20,000, but re- 5On these islands there was a modest increase in
covered within 10 years. Deerr, op. cit., footnote 3, production in the second half of the century. See
Vol. 1, tables on pp. 199, 235-36. Deerr, op. cit., footnote 3, Vol. 1, tables on pp. 194-99.
of the freed men PERNAMBUCO left the pla

production for a time did decline, but this
The Labat System at the Beginning of
crisis was overcome by the arrival of East
the Nineteenth Century
Indians. The extent of fertile soils and plan-
tations unencumbered with debt attracted the The sugar growing region of Pernambuco
capital to finance improvements in cultiva- forms part of the long narrow plain which
tion and manufacture and so enabled Guianan fronts the Atlantic along the east coast of
sugar to remain competitive and to find an Brazil.7 Pernambuco's share of the plain is
increasingly large market. In Puerto Rico and
Cuba, the increase in sugar cultivation which 7Sources and Abbreviations: This discussion of the
sugar industry in Pernambuco is based on travel
had begun in the eighteenth century con-
accounts and censuses, and on documents in archives
tinued into the nineteenth filling the gap in in London, Lisbon, and Brazil. Several series of docu-
the market left by the destruction of the ments are frequently referred to in these notes and
plantations of St. Domingue. Spain, driven therefore abbreviations have been used.
from mainland America, turned its attention toConsular Reports from Brazil, 1825-1878, series:
Foreign Office 13, in the Public Record Office, Lon-
the development of these surviving colonies,
don. This series contains the original reports sent by
removed trade restrictions and encouraged British consuls in Brazil to the Foreign Secretary in
the cultivation of sugar. Slavery was main- London. Referencing is as follows: C. R. F. 0. 13/
tained until late in the century-1875 in Vol., name of consul, name of Foreign Secretary,
residence of consul, date of report.
Puerto Rico, and 1880 in Cuba-and the ex-
The Slave Trade Papers, 1824-1888, series: Foreign
istence of an alternate labor force in the large Office 84, in the Public Record Office, London, con-
free population, which during the century was tain reports on slavery sent to the Foreign Secretary
increasingly drawn into the sugar industry, from British consuls around the world. Reference:
meant that abolition had slight impact on pro- S. T. P. F. 0. 84/Vol., name of consul, name of
Foreign Secretary, residence of consul, date of report.
duction. In Cuba, shortages of cheap labor
House of Commons Accounts and Papers, 1854-
were remedied by importing men from Yuca- 1913. During the second half of the century, the
tan and China, and later from Jamaica and Consular Reports were published in these Accounts
Haiti. At the end of the century, access to and Papers. Reference: H. C. A. P., year, Vol., resi-
the market and capital of the United States dence of consul, page.
Official correspondence sent from Pernambuco to
led to an even greater spread of cane fields
Lisbon, 1800-1808, now stored, unbound, in boxes in
over these islands and to a rapid introduction the Arquivo, Historico Ultramarino, Lisbon. Reference:
of the central factory system.6 A. H. U. L., Pernambuco, date, box number, folio (if
During the nineteenth century, as the dis- numbered).
Governadores/Presidentes de Pernambuco, Corres-
ruption of the Labat system proceeded, the
pondencia comr 0 Ministerio do Reino/Imperio, 1808-
patterns of land use and population distri- 1852, in the Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro. The
bution in the West Indies greatly changed. series contains miscellaneous correspondence of the
Governors/Presidents of Pernambuco with what was
Plantations were abandoned and villages of
the Ministry of the Interior. (The titles of some
peasant farmers came into being. Great sugar officials and ministries changed when Brazil became
colonies of the eighteenth century sank into independent in 1822.) Reference: Pernambuco,
poverty and obscurity as British Guiana, Correspondaencia, Vol., date, folio (if numbered).
Relat6rios dos Presidentes de Pernambuco, 1838-
Puerto Rico, and Cuba rose to! be the main
1890. These are reports on various aspects of the
producers. The experience of the sugar indus- government and economy of Pernambuco written by
try of Pernambuco provides a fourth pattern the Presidents of Pernambuco for presentation to
of response to the problems which faced sugarthe Legislative Assembly. (These Relat6rios were
cultivators in the nineteenth century. printed but are not now easily found. Incomplete
collections exist in the Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de
Janeiro, and in the Biblioteca Pu'blica, Recife.) Ref-
6 Cuba in the 1790's was producing between 20,000
and 30,000 tons a year which increased to about
erence: Relat6rio, date, page.
1,000,000 tons by the early twentieth century. During Colecao Camaras Municipaes, 1837-1906, in the
the nineteenth century, production in Puerto Rico rose Arquivo Pu'blico Estadual, Recife. This series contains
from less than 10,000 tons to about 100,000 tons, and the reports sent from the municipal councils to the
in British Guiana from several hundred tons to about Presidents of Pernambuco, with occasional instructions
100,000. Deerr, op. cit., footnote 3, Vol. 1, tables from the Presidents. Reference: C. C. M., Vol.,
on pp. 131, 126, 203. municipal council, date of the report.
200 Miles
t Ql.+> G~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~O'
A CpBAR/8E
Bo~b re ml
~~VACU~~' *. 2~600 ft.
* ~~~~~50 MILES 15ft

FIG2TheForest Zone of1 Pembo.650 ft.
FIG. 2. Thle Forest Zone of Pernambuco.
small for the state has a coastline of only 100 moreover, there is a marked contrast in sur-
miles. North of Recife, which roughly marks face features north and south of Recife. The
the midpoint of this stretch of coast, the plain valleys and varzeas, or flood plains, of the
is about forty miles wide, whereas to the south northern rivers are narrow and incised into
it broadens until it eventually reaches west- flat-topped uplands known as tabuleiros.
wards some seventy miles. The inland edge These are formed of sandy Pliocene sediments
of the plain is delimited by a sharp topo- and support porous unproductive soils. In
graphic break, the escarpment of the Borbo- this part of the plain good soils are for the
rema Plateau, and from this Plateau across most part restricted to the alluvials of the
the plain to the sea there meander several valley floors. South of Recife, the area of fer-
small rivers. The local relief of the plain is tility is much more extensive, for not only is
very pronounced, occasionally of the order the plain broader, but the tabuleiros have
of 300-400 feet, steep slopes are common, and been removed by erosion exposing a crystalline
bedrock on which has formed a clayey but ceded into the past, leaving as its legacy some
fertile soil. It is to the south of Recife that three hundred plantations."
the bulk of Pernambucan sugar has been pro- These plantations formed parts of large
duced. The vegetation of this plain once landholdings, to be measured in square miles
was luxuriant forest, a little less lush on the rather than in acres, which had their origins
tabuleiros, nurtured by a tropical climate with in generous grants of land, or sesmarias,
an abundant though variable rainfall. From awarded to influential or deserving people by
an annual average of about sixty-five inches the Crown or colonial governors as rewards
along the coast, rainfall decreases inland and for services rendered but also in the hope that
the isohyet of forty inches annual rainfall the new landowners would help settle and
roughly coincides with the escarpment. This develop the colony. The cultivated land and
region is known as the Zona da Mata, or pasture, in fact the plantation, occupied only
Forest Zone of Pernambuco (Fig. 2).8 a part of these vast estates. Plantations were
The first sugar plantations or engenhos of often therefore widely separated, particularly
Pernambuco were established in the middle to the south of Recife; and the landscape of
years of the sixteenth century on the alluvial the Forest Zone at the beginning of the nine-
lands near to Olinda, the original capital of teenth century, even after 250 years of coloni-
the colony but today virtually a suburb of zation, was still dominated by forest.12 Apart
Recife, and in the small river valleys im-
mediately to the north.9 The fertile soils, the '-'According to a survey made in the mid-1770's,
market in Europe, and the experience the there were then 292 plantations in the Forest Zone of
Portuguese had gained in Sdo Tome and Pernambuco. This survey, The Ide'a da Populapdo da
Capitania de Pernambuco e das Suas Annexas, Extensdo
Principe of sugar cultivation under humid de Suas Costas, Rios e Povoa~cfes Notdveis, Agri-
tropical conditions ensured the early success cultura, Nimero dos Engenhos, Contractos, e Rendi-
of the colony. More and more plantations mentos Reas, Augmento Que Estes Tem Tido Desde
0 Anno de 1774 em Que Tomou Posse Do Governo
were built in the northern valleys, and the
das Mesmas Capitanias 0 Governador e Capitam
southern coastal lands were opened up.
General Joze' Cezar de Menezes, has been published
Towards the end of the seventeenth cen- in the Annaes da Bibliotheca Nacional do Rio de
tury, this tide of prosperity began to turn, Janeiro, Vol. 40 (1918), pp. 1-111. Subsequent
and gradually ebbed away, as sugar from the references will be simply to the Idea da Populapd
new colonies in the Caribbean reached Europe 12 A number of sources indicate the extent of the
forest cover of the region at the beginning of the
in increasing quantities.10 By the close of the nineteenth century:
eighteenth century, the heyday of the Per- a) The Mappa Geogrdphica de Todos As Matas da
nambucan sugar industry had long since re- Capitania de Pernambuco da Parte do Sul, athe 0
Rio de Slo Francisco, 1799, records that southern
8 The physical geography of the Forest Zone of Pernambuco, beyond a coastal belt of cultivation, was
Pernambuco has not been adequately studied; its mostly forested. This map, which is, however, little
soils and geology have never been mapped in detail. more than a sketch map, was drawn to show naval
Some attention is given to this region in papers deal- forest reserves. There are copies of it in the Biblioteca
ing with the entire Nordeste. See P. E. James, "Ob-
Nacional and in the map libraries of the Servigo Geo-
servations on the Physical Geography of Northeast grafico do Exercito and of the Itamarati Palace, all in
Brazil," Annals, Association of American Geographers, Rio de Janeiro.
Vol. 42 (1952), pp. 153-76, and M. Lacerda de Melo,
b) Two travelers commented on the extent of
"Bases Geogralficas dos Problemas do Nordeste,"
the Forest: L. F. de Tollenare, Notas Dominicais
Revista Brasileira de Geografia, Vol. 24 (1962), pp.
Tomadas Durante Uma Viagen em Portugal e no
503-38.
Brasil em 1816, 1817 e 1818 (Sdo Salvador, Brasil:
9Engenho, or more explicitly, engenho de acucar,
Livraria Progresso Editora, 1956). These Notes have
was used both for the mill and the plantation. A
been translated from manuscripts in the Biblioteque
planter was known as a senhor de engenho. To avoid
Ste Genevieve, Paris. Tollenare traveled widely in
possible confusion, I have decided to use the English
southern Pernambuco and estimated that the ratio
words-plantation and mill-in this discussion.
of cultivated land to forest within a radius of eighty
10C. Furtado, The Economic Growth of Brazil
miles of Recife was of the order of 1 : 25 or 30, and
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
cites the case of one estate of 10,000 geiras of which
Press, 1963), gave an interpretation of the rise and
only 180 were cultivated (p. 84). H. Koster, Travels
decline of the sugar industry. For sugar cultivation
in Brazil (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme,
in So Tome see F. Tenreiro, "A Ilha de So Tome,"
and Brown,
Mem6rias da Junta de Investigagbes do Ultramar, Vol. 1816), commented on the extent of forest
24 (1961), pp. 9-289, especially pp. 67-74. to the north of Recife (p. 359). Koster lived in Per-
from considerations of a market for sugar, the lord. Both types of tenants were known as
limits to the extent of the effective exploita- lavradores, and obviously were people of some
tion of a sesmaria were- set by three factors: means, with movable goods such as slaves and
accessibility, the size of the labor force and, oxen. Lavradores commonly owned between
as there was little point in growing cane which six and ten slaves and the importance of this
could not be crushed, the capacity of the mill. class of persons in cane lands of Pernambuco
The problem of the mill was inherent in the is suggested by the fact that there were two
Labat system, for the state of technical knowl- or three of them attached to each estate.13
edge and the engineering ability of the The work of the plantations was still done
planters, together with choice of power for the for the most part by slaves. The size of the
mills-wind, water, or animal-insured that a slave labor force varied greatly from planta-
severe upper limit was placed on their size. tion to plantation. Gangs of up to 150 were
There was a further consideration limiting reported on the plantations in the south, but
the size of mills. Transporting the cane from to the north of Recife, plantations were
field to mill was labor-demanding and ex- smaller, and few employed more than forty
pensive work. The larger the mill, the broader slaves.'4 Free men were employed to do the
the acreage of cane needed to supply it and, skilled work in the manufacture of sugar and,
consequently, the further cane had to be trans- because of the increasing cost and difficulty of
ported. There came a point beyond which obtaining slaves, were coming to be employed
cultivation was no longer worthwhile. The in the fields. Some Indians still lived in the
difficulty was overcome by the simple ex- Forest Zone and it was possible to contract
pedient of building a new mill some distance for their labor, but it was to a class of free
from the old, clearing and cultivating land men known as moradores that the planters
around it and, in fact, bring into being another were turning.15 Moradores were essentially
plantation. These new foundations frequently retainers in a society which measured a man's
kept the name of the parent plantation and
importance by the breadth of his land and by
added a distinguishing suffix or prefix such as
the number of people he kept about him. They
novo (new), or cima (above), or baixo (below).
were permitted to build a cabin and cultivate
On some sesmarias there were dynasties of
a few provision crops in return for a very
plantations by the early nineteenth century.
modest rent, and were commonly settled at
By building a new plantation a wealthy
remote points on an estate to keep an eye on
landowner could increase his acreage of cane;
the landowner's property. Some were now
through the lease of land, landowners without
ready capital could pass the burden and ex- being made to work a given number of days a
pense of clearing land and founding new plan- week in the cane fields in lieu of paying rent.
tations onto the shoulders of others. Two At the end of the eighteenth century, nineteen
forms of lease for this purpose were in common out of every twenty freemen in the rural popu-
use. One was merely a way around a shortage
of labor. Land was leased on a share-cropping 13 Lavradores were discussed by Tollenare, op. cit.,
footnote 12, pp. 93-96. However, he did not mention
basis, the tenant undertaking to grow cane
the second form of lease which, by mid-century, was
as his main crop, to send it to be crushed in very common. It was described by De Mornay, an
his landlord's mill, and to surrender the mo- English engineer resident in Pernambuco, in a report
lasses and one-half the sugar as rent. In the on sugar cultivation to the British consul in Recife.
See C. R. F. 0. 13/240, Cowper to Aberdeen, Per-
second form of lease, the tenant had the use
nambuco, 16th March 1846. The report is also quoted
of the land for eight to twelve years, rent free;in Deerr, op. cit., footnote 3, Vol. 2, pp. 357-58. A
but, in return, he had to clear the land, and mid-century enquiry into landownership in Pernam-
build a plantation complete with mansion, buco, the Registro de Terras Publicas, now in the
Arquivo Puiblico Estadual, Recife records many ex-
mill, and slave quarters, which on the expiry
amples of this form of lease.
of the lease became the property of the land- 14 Tollenare, op. cit., footnote 12, p. 93, for the
south; Koster, op. cit., footnote 12, p. 362, for the
nambuco for several years and managed sugar plan- north.
tations. 15 Koster hired Indians to work on his plantation
c) Brazil wood was still a valuable export. A. H. U. from Alhandra dos Indios, a village in Paraiba. Koster,
L., Pernambuco, 1805, Box 41. op. cit., footnote 12, p. 218.
TONS
on some varzeas was the land ploughed; else-
200,000
where, the roots and stumps of trees in the
Sugar exported from Recife - imperfectly cleared fields made ploughing
Sugar entering the Recit e I impractical. Shoots appeared above the ground
Market 1A
150,000- twelve to fourteen days after planting and
the canes were harvested a year or more later
VI depending on the weather and the type of soil.
After the harvest, the roots were left in the
100,000 /
ground to produce another crop, a custom
known as ratooning. The yields of the ratoon
crops gradually declined, the best soils pro-
50,0 00-
ducing five to six profitable crops, the poorer
soils only three. The fields were then aban-
doned or cleared of the old canes and re-
planted. No deliberate attempt was made to
0 - Fffl preserve the fertility of the soils. Even the
1800 1825 1850 1875 1900
manure of the plantation livestock was not
FIG. 3. Sugar production in the nineteenth century. used. Cattle pens, such as those moved across
Source: Consular Reports and House of the fields of West Indian plantations, were un-
Commons Accounts and Papers.
known. The only fertilizer the soil received
was the ash of the burning of the debris of
lation of the Forest Zone were moradores; clearing and later from the decay of the debris
they constituted a large reservoir of labor.16 of harvesting. The Forest Zone of Pernam-
The methods of cultivation had changed buco was still so sparsely occupied and so
very little if at all since the beginning of seldom could a landowner, even with the help
colonization. The planters, wrote Koster, "con- of his tenants, cultivate all his land that there
tinue year after year the system which was was no necessity or incentive to make laborious
followed by their fathers, without any wish and perhaps expensive efforts to ensure that
to improve, and without, indeed, the knowl- the soil did not become exhausted. It was
edge that any improvement could be made."'7 easier and cheaper to clear new fields and let
The land was cleared and planted with cane the old revert to forest as soon as the ratoon
for several years; and when yields fell off crops no longer gave a worthwhile return, a
the forest was allowed to regenerate. Only practice which had by this time acquired in
the most fertile vadrzeas were kept permanently Pernambuco the sanction of custom. It seems
cleared but even these were not continuously reasonable to conclude that even by early
cultivated, but were rested from time to time nineteenth century standards of sugar culti-
by being used for pasture land. Creole cane, vation the yields of sugar per acre in Per-
grown in the Americas for the past three hun-nambuco must have been low.
dred years, but which at this time in the West Inefficiency characterized the milling and
Indies was being replaced by the higher yield- manufacturing of sugar. In a land swept by
ing Bourbon variety, was still being cultivated the trade winds, there is not one reference to
in Pernambuco. It was grown from cuttings, the use of windmills at the end of the eigh-
which were planted in trenches or rows of teenth century, and the watermills were so
holes dug across the fields by slaves using badly designed that they seldom made the
hoes. Little use was made of ploughs. Only most of the sites afforded by the rivers and
streams. The majority of mills were worked
16 Moradores were discussed by Tollenare, op. cit.,
by horses or oxen.18 It was general in Per-
footnote 12, p. 97, and by De Mornay, op. cit., foot-
note 13. Those who worked in the cane fields became
nambuco for cane to be passed six or seven
known as moradores de condicdo. See Manoel Correia
de Andrade, A Terra e 0 Homen No Nordeste (Sao 18 Of the 292 plantations recorded in the Idea da
Paulo: Edit6ra Brasiliense, 1963), p. 92. Populacdo, op. cit., footnote 11, the mills of 71 were
17 Koster, op. cit., footnote 12, p. 18. The discussion powered by horses, 35 by unspecified animals and
of cultivation and milling which follows is based on bestas, 50 had watermills and there was no indication
Koster. of the type of mill on the remaining 136 plantations.
/~~~~~~~~
50 MILES |
J i' --, * ~~~~~~~~~REC JFE

pVITORIA :RCF
A/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~/I
C-j ~ 5 SIRINHAEM
2*AGUAPRT
SITE OF 'SESMARIAS'
FIG. 4. Sesmarias awarded between 1792 and 1825. Numerals indicate number of sesmarias which can-
not be accurately located within parishes.
Source: Sesmarias de 1792 a 1828 Extractados do Livro 3 do Registro das Sesmarias. Full ref
erence, footnote 21.
times between the presses to extract the same -was not used for fuel as in the West Indies,
quantity of juice which most West Indian mills but allowed to moulder in heaps around the
obtained after the cane had been pressed only mills. Instead, fuel was cut in the forests and
one or two times. In the boiling houses, the carted to the ovens. This was not only an
work was done in a "slovenly manner" and the unnecessary assault on the forest resources,
ovens were "crudely made," though most of but was wasteful of time and labor. Little
the sugar was made into the more highly attention was paid to the manufacture of rum.
valued clayed varieties and relatively little was Few plantations possessed "still" houses, and
exported as muscovado.'9 Bagasse-the cane the molasses was sold to small independent
stalks from which the juice had been extracted distilleries. At the beginning of the nineteenth
century, while Jamaica was manufacturing
19 De Mornay, op. cit., footnote 13. some 90,000 tons of sugar annually, production
in Pernambuco was about 10,000 tons (Fig. the Caribbean, sugar production under thQ
3), most of which was sent to Lisbon and Labat system increased in Pernambuco during
some then shipped to other European ports.20 the nineteenth century.
Clearly the Labat system in early nineteenth Plantations were established in the southern
century Pernambuco was being practiced in interior of the Forest Zone, beyond the agri-
a very inefficient manner. At one time, knowl- cultural frontier of the early nineteenth cen-
edge of the techniques of cultivation and tury. This spread of settlement was accom-
manufacture of sugar had passed from Per- plished during the last years of Portuguese
nambuco to the West Indies, but now it was rule by the continuing award of sesmarias
Pernambuco that had much to learn. For the (Fig. 4) 21 Under the Empire, until a policy
wasteful approach to resources, the very to govern the distribution of the public do-
abundance of resources must in part be held main was established, the land was divided
accountable. Manuring and burning bagasse among a squattocracy of planters and small
are measures of conservation, and necessity holders.22 By the midyears of the nineteenth
forced them upon the planters of the West century, it appears that the settlement of the
Indian islands where land was limited. By Forest Zone was complete in that the agri-
contrast, in the Forest Zone of Pernambuco, cultural frontier now lapped along the foot
which was only partly settled and where land- of the Borborema Escarpment and, as far as
owners could cultivate only part of their prop- one can ascertain, all public land had become
erty, land was still abundant and cheap, and private. In such parishes as Bonito, on the
should a plantation become rundown a new headwaters of the Sirinhaem, and Agua Preta
one could be established. The Labat system in on the Una, both created as a result of the
Pernambuco had not become wasteful or in- spread of population and cultivation inland,
efficient; it simply had not been forced to there were recorded in 1844 twenty and fifty-
become more efficient. Methods had not three plantations, respectively.23
changed in Pernambuco as they had elsewhere. With the existence of uncultivated land in
coastal districts at the beginning of the cen-
The Nineteenth Century
Three aspects of the sugar industry of Per- 21 There is evidence for the award of 34 sesmarias
in the Forest Zone of Pernambuco in the late eigh-
nambuco at the start of the nineteenth century
teenth and early nineteenth centuries: Biblioteca
had an important bearing on the events of Pu'blica, Sesmarias, Vol. 4: Sesmarias de 1792 a 1828
the rest of the century. The existence of a Extractadas do Livro 3 do Registro das Sesmarias
large area of land in the Forest Zone, suitable Pertencente ao Cartorio da Thezouraria de Fazenda
Desta Provincia (Government of Pernambuco, Secre-
for sugar cultivation, but as yet still forested,
taria da Educa~co e Cultura, Recife, 1959), 38 pp.
meant that a great increase in the acreage of The last sesmaria was awarded in 1825. The 1828
sugar was possible. The backwardness of the entry in the Registro merely confirms the award of a
industry and its wasteful methods ensured sesmaria in 1822.
that production could be increased by making 22 Squatting had in all probability existed in Per-
nambuco since the beginning of colonization. In the
the plantations more efficient while still con-
early nineteenth century it was reported as being very
serving the basic Labat system. The presence common: A. H. U. L., Pernambuco, 1804-1805,
of a large class of freemen, some of whom Box 40. Between 1822, when Brazil declared itself
already worked on the plantations, pointed to independent, and the passing of a public lands act in
1850 (Law 601 of the 18th September), a policy for
a solution of the labor problem which abolition
distributing public lands did not exist and squatting
would bring. In Pernambuco, as in Puerto was probably the prevailing method of acquiring land.
Rico and Cuba, the disruption of the Labat Law 601 of 1850, which was an attempt to introduce
system was long delayed by the late abolition some order into the situation, was discussed by T.
of slavery (1888), and, in common with these Lynn Smith, Brazil: People and Institutions (Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1963), pp.
two islands, but in contrast to other islands of
290-91.
20 Deerr, op. cit., footnote 3, Vol. 1, p. 198, for 23 F. A. Pereira da Costa, "Origens Hist6ricas
Jamaica; the Pernambuco data are from an examina- da Indu'stria Acu'careira em Pernambuco," Brasil
tion of exports recorded in A. H. U. L., Pernambuco, Acuscareira, No. 4, Vol. 6 (1940), pp. 33-41. His
1800-1808, Boxes 33-34. The ports of Brazil were source was the Relat6rio of 1844, a copy of which I
opened to foreign shipping in 1808. have been unable to find.
tury, this movement of the agricultural f

requires some explanation. The desire for land-
DISTRICT OF IPOJUCA
ownership-land being easier to acquire be-
yond the frontier than in the long-settled area
behind it-must have been a powerful lode-
stone for the movement into the forests of
the southern interior. Part of the explanation 0 0 ~~~~IPOJUCA
also lay in the attraction of fertile untilled
soils which, initially at least, were more pro- 0 M AAI)
ductive than those of the long-settled districts.
The great handicap under which these plan-
tations labored was the expense and difficulty c v c o VILA DOk n
of sending their sugar to the coast.24 Cheap
and efficient transport came only with the
building of the railways in the second half of 0
the century.
Along the coast, the subdivision of the land-
grants continued, new plantations were
founded, and land use intensified. In the
parish of Sirinhaem, to the south of Recife,
which towards the end of the eighteenth cen-
tury contained about fifty plantations, there
were by mid-century sixty-nine plantations and Brzl ver rail elcdtelwryed
in 1869, ninety-six, this despite the fact that ing~~ Crol an by11,dsie e esn
the parish was reduced in size by the dismem- of poo weater, i was eing reditd wit
berment of territory for the creation of new hain hepdt nrae h uardc
tion~~~ of0rabc.8Mnrn eaemr
parishes.25 There was a similar pattern of in-
crease in the Forest Zone as a whole: the
300 plantations of the late eighteenth century
increasing to about 500 in 1818, to about 1,000 BraIl, v.erye rpdlytreplaced lnttinsi the lwryed
at mid-century, and in the 1870's, 1,300 were Dititof poorweathr itwarbing creite with's
recorded (Fig. 5) *26 havingcelpedp to--4 inces the sugLibary poduc-e
A few improvements were made to the
Labat system as it was practiced in Pernam-
buco during the nineteenth century. In 1810, tione of Pernarbucety Manuring becm mnorei
the Portuguese Governor of Cayenne sent to
24 This was reflected in the price of plantations.

According to Koster, op. cit., footnote 12, pp. 362-63, 27The Portuguese occupied French Guiana-Cay-
a well-equipped plantation on the coast cost from enne-from 1809 to 1817. I have been unable to
?7,000 to ?10,000, with one-sixth of the price as a trace the documentary evidence for the introduction
down payment, and the balance to be paid in in- of Cayenne cane in 1810. This date is given by B.
stallments; an inland plantation could be bought for Dantas and J. Lacerda de Mello in "As Areas Culti-
between ?3,000 and ?5,000 and only a small down vadas Com as Atuais Variedades Na Zona Canaviera
payment was required. de Pernambuco," Brasil Apulcareira, Vol. 54 (1959),
25 The sources for these figures are as follows: pp. 38-39 and in Deerr, op. cit., footnote 3, Vol. 1,
1770's-The Idea da Populacao, op. cit., footnote 11; p. 20. In neither work is the source cited. According
1859-The Registro de Terras Publicas, op. cit., foot- to Costa, op. cit., footnote 25, p. 33, the government
note 13, Vol. 1, Sirinhaem; 1869-C. C. M. 39, in 1811 ordered Cayenne cane to be grown instead
Sirinhaem, 15th February, 1869. of Creole.
26 Sources: 1770's: The Idea da Popula?vdo, op. cit., 28 Pernambuco, Correspondencia, 6, June 15, 1818,
footnote 11; 1818: Pernambuco, Correspondencia, 6, folio 233. For a discussion of the reception of Cay-
June 15th, 1818; Mid-nineteenth century: De Mornay, enne cane in another important sugar growing region
op. cit., footnote 13. In the Relat6rio, 1857, pp. 76- of Brazil, the Reconcavo of Bahia, see J. Wanderley
77, 1,106 were reported; 1870's: H. C. A. P., 1872, de Araujo Pinho, Hist6ria de um Engenho do Recon-
58, Pernambuco, p. 634. cavo 1552-1914 (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Editora
common, though "resting" the land, by allow- With the borrowing of some West Indian
ing it to revert to scrub or forest when the practices, the planters of Pernambuco were
yields of the ratoon crops dropped, was still indeed "being drawn to the system at work in
the rule on all but the most fertile va'rzea the West Indies" as was reported by a British
soils. Possibly the use of manure permitted consul.33 By the 1880's, the outstanding con-
the land to be cultivated for a greater length trast between the sugar industries of these two
of time than before. The use of ploughs be- parts of the world was that in the one slavery
came more widespread and by mid-century had been abolished and the disruption of the
they were to be found on the better-managed Labat system begun; in the other slavery still
plantations.29 The introduction of heavy hori- existed and the disruption of the Labat sys-
zontal presses to replace the old vertical rollers tem was about to begin.
greatly increased the capacity and efficiency
of the mills. Cane could be crushed more The Abolition of Slavery
rapidly by these new presses and a greater In contrast to the experience of many West
percentage of the juice extracted from the Indian islands, and contrary to the gloomy
cane. Horizontal presses were in widespread predictions of the local planters, abolition of
use by mid-century.30 Steam engines to power slavery in Pernambuco had slight impact on
mills first appeared in Pernambuco in 1817, sugar production. Fluctuations in the amount
but they were very slow to be adopted for of sugar exported in the years immediately
they were expensive, spare parts were difficult following 1888 were no more pronounced than
to obtain, and there was a shortage of trained fluctuations earlier or later in the century (Fig.
mechanics.3' Only two steam mills were in 3), and can be as easily attributed to vagaries
operation in 1838, and even thirty years later, of the weather as to any shortage of labor
in the fertile district of Rio Formoso, only four brought about by the end of slavery. In fact,
of sixty-eight mills were steam powered.32 The production was maintained and a labor crisis
extension of cultivation and the gradual de- avoided because an alternate labor supply
pletion of the forests was forcing planters to existed in the free population, and because the
burn bagasse for fuel. A net result of these very lateness of abolition bad permitted
improvements and the extension of the cane planters to recognize its inevitability and to
acreage was a large increase in the production make accommodations to meet it by increas-
of sugar. By the 1860's, some 50,000 tons (Fig. ingly employing free men.
3) were being exported annually from Per- During the first half of the nineteenth cen-
nambuco, mainly to the traditional markets of tury slaves continued to be imported by Brazil
Portugal and Mediterranean Europe, though and, until the Anglo-Brazilian Treaty of 1830
some was still finding its way into the beet which ended the legal traffic in slaves, they
growing lands of the north. were sold openly in the slave markets of
Recife. As many as 7,124 slaves were landed
Zelio Valverde S.A., 1946), pp. 243-45. Cayenne in Pernambuco during the last eighteen months
cane was cultivated in Pernambuco until the 1870's of legal traffic.34 A clandestine trade in slaves
when it was replaced because of the increasing inci- continued for a further twenty-five years, but
dence of disease. Planters turned first to canes of
East Indian origin and, at the end of the century,
in the mid-1850's the Brazilian Government
to varieties evolved in Pernambuco. (which earlier had neither the power nor, as
29 Relatorio, 1857, p. 78. But there is no descrip- its stability depended on the support of the
tion of the ploughs. In C. C. M. (no Vol. number),
planter class, the will to suppress the trade),
Rio Formoso, 10th September, 1872, the ploughs are
referred to as "American" ploughs but again there cooperated with the Royal Navy to end it once
is no description. and for all. Understandably during this period
30 Relat6rio, 1852, p. 78. of smuggling slaves ashore, figures for the
31 M. Diegues Junior, Populacdo e Acucar no
number of slaves imported from Africa are
Nordeste do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro and Sdo Pauloi:
EdicAo da Comissdo Nacional de Alimentacdo, 1954),
p. 144. 33 H. C. A. P., 1872, 58, Pernambuco, p. 237.
32 S. T. P. F. 0. 84/255, Watts to Palmerston, Per- 34 Compiled from figures in the reports from Per-
nambuco, March 29th, 1838; C. C. M. (no. Vol. num- nambuco: Volumes S. T. P. F. 0. 84/95, 1829 and
ber), Rio Formoso, 10th September, 1872. S. T. P. F. 0. 84/112, 1830.
Tambe"
50 MILES x- \mab
Golana
e .D. M.
N.D.M. Nazare Da Mata
\ A * Iguaracu
P.D.A. Pau D'Alho sNs*P.D.A. x I
S.L.M. Sao Lourenco Da Mata A Xe. S L.M.
/ A wN X* Olinda
V.D.S.A. Vitoria De Santo Antao VDS.V A; A; Recife
J. Jabootdo x/
E Escada X //
__ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A. Cabo
A. Amaragi x~xE.-/~ A
G Gameleira B i __pjuca
P. Palmares Boio. A ]
A. P. Aguc Preta A@ A1 Sirinhaem
__A. P. ________ Xrets \ * *Rio Formoso
| 6;XW\\\T\ ffi A P ! A
|Q~i ~ 9 AW n A .Barreiros
USINAS
X BUILT BEFORE 1900 LAND OVER 650 FT
A BUILT AFTER 1900 RAILWAYS
FIG. 6. Distribution of Central Factories in 1920.

Source: Mappa da Locapio das Usinas de Assu'car, Setembro 1929, Biblioteca Nacional, Rio d
few and unreliable. Between 1839 and 1850, This shortage, together with the difficulties
12,512 slaves are known to have been landed and risks of importing slaves, meant that prices
in Pernambuco, but undoubtedly there were rose steeply and, as the century wore on,
many more of which Her Majesty's Consuls slavery became an increasingly expensive form
in Recife never heard.35 The number of slaves of labor.6 Some planters even sold their
arriving in Recife did not satisfy the demand
36 At the beginning of the century a good male
for them.
slave cost about ?32: Koster, op. cit., footnote 12,
35 Compiled from figures in the reports from Per- p. 362. By mid-century, an adult male slave born in
nambuco: Volumes S. T. P. F. 0. 84/289, 1839 to Africa sold for ? 100, an adult creole (born in
S. T. P. F. 0. 84/880, 1851. Brazil) for between ?114 and ?137, and a male slave
slaves south to the coffee growers of the mately two-thirds of the slaves of Pernambuco
Paraiba Valley who were able to pay high lived in the Forest Zone, the remainder were
prices for them.37 The slaves, having become employed further inland.42 Part of the slave
a more valuable commodity, began to receive population consisted of domestic servants and
better treatment; their working life thereby laborers in Recife, and some slaves were either
gradually increased from an average of fifteen too old or too young to work. Possibly fewer
to one of twenty years.8 Although as late as than 40,000 were actually agricultural workers
1827 it had been considered cheaper to import on the sugar plantations during the midyears
slaves than rear them from infancy,39 by mid- of the century. When this stable slave popu-
century the continuing existence of the slave lation is set against the rapid growth of the
force had come to depend entirely on natural population of the Forest Zone, from about
increase. 200,000 at the beginning of the century to
Accurate statistics on the size of the slave 500,000 at the end and against the large in-
population are difficult to obtain. There was crease in the number of plantations, the de-
a census in 1872, but for the preceding years cline in the importance of slavery becomes
figures from partial censuses and contem- evident.43
porary estimates must suffice.40 It appears By the 1870's, when statistics of free agri-
that there was a rapid increase in the slave cultural workers first came to hand, free
population during the early years of the cen- laborers outnumbered slaves in every parish
tury, reaching eventually about 80,000, and of the Forest Zone.44 In Ipojuca for instance,
that this population remained stable until im- on the coast to the south of Recife, an average
mediately before abolition when voluntary of forty-eight free men were employed on
manumission became common.4' Approxi- each plantation compared to thirty-five
with some special skill or trade for ?180: S. T. P. F. 0. Politica da Provincia de Pernambuco, composto sobre
84/1021, Cowper to Clarendon, Pernambuco, 13th Documento Officiacs e Particulares (Recife: Typo-
January, 1857. Two years later these prices had graphia de M. F. de Faria, 1852), p. 202. This book
increased by about 25 per cent: S. T. P. F. 0. 84/ was never published. After the proofs were prepared,
1092, Needham to Malmesbury, Pernambuco, Feb- the printer's blocks were destroyed in a fire. A copy
ruary 10th, 1859. of the proofs, with the author's corrections, can be
37 S. T. P. F. 0. 84/1116, Christie to Russell, Rio de consulted in the library of the Colegio Estadual, Rua
Janeiro, 2nd June, 1860. da Aurora, Recife, Pernambuco. A count in 1839,
38 S. T. P. F. 0. 84/1116, Christie to Russell, Rio de reported in Relat6rio, 1839, p. 39, recorded 68,585
Janeiro, 2nd June, 1860. slaves. In the 1872 census, op. cit., footnote 43, 89,-
39 S. T. P. F. 0. 84/71, Pennell to Canning, Bahia, 028 slaves were enumerated and in 1880 and 1886,
9th January, 1827. 91,992 and 80,872, respectively, were reported in
40 Recenseamento da Populauio do Impe'rio do Relat6rio, 1880, p. 15 and Relato'rio, 1886, p. 50.
Brasil a que se procedeu no Dia 1 de Agosto de 1872 42 Distribution from the census of 1872, op. cit.,
(Government of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, 1873-76), footnote 43. 62,522 of the 89,028 slaves were in the
21 vols., Vol. 13, Pernambuco. The 1872 census was Forest Zone.
the first national census of Brazil. Though its ac- 43 1810-200,000. Estimate, by municipio, of Cae-
curacy is difficult to assess, it was certainly a great tano Pinto de Miranda Montenegro, Captain General
improvement on the earlier estimates and provincial of Pernambuco and quoted by Figueiro de Mello,
censuses. op. cit., footnote 44, pp. 159-60. I have been unable
41 I have been unable to find an enumeration of the to trace the original. 1890-551,975. Recenseamento
slave population of Pernambuco at the beginning do Brasil de 1890 (Government of Brazil, Rio de
of the nineteenth century. Assuming an average of Janeiro, 1898-1900), 4 vols. The publishing of this,
100 slaves per plantation, almost certainly unrealis- the second national census of Brazil, was never com-
tically high, there would have been about 30,000 pleted. As far as I can ascertain only four volumes
slaves in Pernambuco at this time. By mid-century, appeared: two containing a summary of the results
a number of observers estimated the slave population for the entire country and a volume each for the
at about 100,000: Conselheiro Antonio Rodrigues de Federal District and Alagoas.
Oliveira, "A Igreja do Brasil," Revista Trimensal do 44 Census of 1872, op. cit., footnote 43, in which the
Instituto Hist6rico, Geographico e Ethnographico do occupations of the free and slave populations were
Brasil, Vol. 29 (1866), and S. T. P. F. 0. 84/470, recorded, and in reports from the councils of mu-
Cowper to Aberdeen, Pemambuco, 4th August, 1843. nicipios on the condition of agriculture which the
According to another source, a census taken in 1829 President of Pernambuco requested in 1869. These
revealed 80,265 slaves: Jeronymo Martiniano Fig- reports are in the series C. C. M., 39, 40, 41, 1869-70
ueiro de Mello, Ensaio sobre a Statistica Civil e and an unnumbered volume dated 1872.
50 MILES {
, _ - t ' s I~~~~~~- (
PLANTATIONS ?/o OF PLANTATIONS SENDING

-- 200 ~ SUGAR CANE TO USINAS
:M X = L ~~100 C
l ~~~~~~~~~360?=100%l
FIG. 7. The extent of the central factory

Source: 1920 Census. Census unit: Municipio.
slaves.45 These free men were moradores, was merely the culmination of a period of
bound to work a given number of days per transition, the weakening and finally the aboli-
week on the plantation in return for the use tion of slavery did have a significant impact
of a small plot of land. As slavery declined on the settlement pattern. Plantation house
in Pernambuco, this class of rural worker and slave quarters ceased to be important
grew. concentrations of population, for moradores
If, then, in the history of the labor supply built their huts at scattered points on the
of the plantations of Pernambuco, abolition estates. This trend to the extreme dispersal
45 C. C. M., 41, Ipojuca, 16th February 1870. of settlement was interrupted by the central
factory system which provided new foci of The record of mismanagement is almost in-
population. credible. There was a second fundamental
cause of the failure of the two companies, one
The Central Factory System which had important repercussions, and this
The switch to the central factory system be- was the separation of the ownership of milling
gan in Pernambuco during the 1870's. It was and manufacturing of sugar from that of the
a move welcomed and encouraged by the Bra- growing of sugar. The companies did not
zilian Government for the new system of pro- own cane fields and had, therefore, to contract
duction not only offered the prospect of a with the growers of cane for their supplies.
more efficient sugar industry but it was ex- As the planters still had their old mills in
pected that the factories would pay wages working order, they were in a position to
and that these would induce many of the slaves demand high prices for their cane. The com-
to remain with the industry after they had panies were forced to agree at the beginning
obtained their freedom. It was also hoped that of the harvest on the price to be paid per ton
the introduction of the new system would of cane throughout the season, an arrangement
permit the burden of financing the improve- which meant that should the selling price of
ments of the sugar industry to be transferred manufactured sugar decline, the companies
abroad, for the likelihood of raising capital on could well end the season operating at a loss.
the international money markets to build large From the experience of these companies two
factories was higher than for the re-equipping lessons were learnt: firstly, that the price paid
of numerous small mills. In 1875, the Brazilian for a ton of cane should be reviewed every few
Government offered to guarantee a fixed an- days in the light of the current selling price of
nual interest on capital invested in sugar fac- manufactured sugar; and secondly, that it was
tories, provided the plans for the factories preferable for factories not to have to depend
met with its approval.46 Two British com- on planters for cane, but to grow their own.
panies, Central Factories of Brazil Ltd., and The owners of factories began to buy land.48
North Brazilian Sugar Factories Ltd., accepted The bankruptcies of these British companies
this offer and agreed to build thirteen factories were only a temporary setback to the establish-
in Pernambuco.47 ment of the central factory system. At the end
These companies, the first to introduce the of the nineteenth century, there were forty-
new system to Pernambuco, fared badly. Be- one factories, or usinas, in the Forest Zone of
tween them they built only six factories and, Pernambuco. Of these, eight were financed
by 1886, despite the guarantee of interest on with British capital, twelve with French, and
their capital, they were bankrupt. Incom- two with German, whereas the others had
petence was a major cause of these bank- been built with funds raised in Brazil, many
ruptcies. Men who could not speak Portu- by groups of neighboring planters who pooled
guese, and who had no previous experience of their resources. In the first two decades of
manufacturing sugar, were employed as gen- the twentieth century, thirty-five more usinas
eral managers of factories. Because of a lack were built and the share of the sugar produc-
of skilled mechanics, the machinery worked tion of Pernambuco contributed by the usinas
imperfectly and extracted only slightly more rose from a third to a little more than one-half.
juice from the cane than many of the tradi- The transition to the new system was well on
tional mills. The narrow gauge railways for the way to completion.49
hauling the cane from the plantations to the
factories were shoddily built, and in the case of 48 The causes of the failure of the two companies
were discussed in H. C. A. P., 1887, 83, Pernambuco,
two factories were not built at all. It was
p. 264, and in great detail in the Colecdo Engenhos
common for ten days to elapse between the Centraes, Vol. 1, pp. 61-154, in the Arquivo Pu'blico
cutting of the cane and its arrival at the fac- Estadual, Recife. This collection consists of only one
tories, during which time of course it withered volume of documents. Factories entirely dependent
on planters for cane were known as engenhos centraes
and dried and yielded ultimately less sugar. (central mills/factories); factories with their own
cane lands came to be known as usinas.
46 H. C. A. P., 1884-1885, 76, Rio de Janeiro, p. 352.49H. C. A. P., 1895, 96, Pernambuco, pp. 2-29, and
47 H. C. A. P., 1883, 73, Pernambuco, p. 1134. the Mappa da Locacdo das Usinas de Assulcar, Setem-
5 0 MILES
A~~~~~~~A
RURAL ESTABLISHMENTS 0/o OF RURAL ESTABLISHMENTS
1__ _ _ WITH AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS

500
100 33600 100 0/0
FIG. 8. Rural establishments (plantations and other rural properties) with mechanic
plements (ploughs, graders, and tractors).
Source: 1920 Census. Census unit: Municipio.
The central factory system first took hold more into use, and with improvements in
along the line of the Recife and Sdo Francisco road transport, the importance of railways as
Railway which crossed the southern part of a locational factor became less pressing, and
the region, as it was essential for the usinas factories became more widely dispersed over
to have easy and cheap transport to Recife. the better agricultural districts (Fig. 6). The
Later, as narrow gauge tracks came more and old style plantations were increasingly con-
fined to the hilliest and most remote parts of
bro de 1929, in the Map Library of the Biblioteca the region, in particular, along the Borborema
Nacional, Rio de Janeiro. Escarpment (Fig. 7).
Within the perimeter of its influence, the company stores, and were inhabited by a
new system brought about changes in agri- wage earning proletariat.52
cultural practices, in the class structure, and During this period of transition from one
in the settlement pattern. Large companies, system of sugar production to another, the
more easily than individual planters, could amount of sugar grown and manufactured in
afford new equipment, and could invest in Pernambuco continued to increase and mar-
irrigation and drainage schemes where they kets to be found (Fig. 3). In the middle years
were needed, and could conduct research. of the nineteenth century, competition from
By 1920, tractors and ploughs were far more
other producers of cane sugar and from beet
sugar weakened Pernambuco's hold on its
common in the districts in which the central
traditional markets in Europe and North Amer-
factory system held sway than where it did
ica, but the rapid growth of population in
not (Fig. 8) .5O The purchase of land by usinas
southern Brazil and Argentina was creating
and agreements to buy cane from planters
an alternate market. This change in the pat-
meant that more and more of the traditional
tern of exports was accelerated by the intro-
mills went out of use. In 1914, 490 plantations duction of the central factory system. The
no longer milled their own cane, and by 1920 qualities of sugar which the new system pro-
this figure had increased to 1,023.'1 Many duced in Pernambuco were not well received
planters withdrew from the countryside, to in the traditional markets, but were readily
Recife or Rio. Their crumbling mansions and accepted in the new markets to the south.
abandoned mills are nostalgic reminders in Ironically, the modernization of the sugar in-
the landscape of today of the passing of a dustry of Pernambuco did not lead to1 a re-
system of sugar production and of a way of tention of its traditional markets but con-
life which by the end of the nineteenth century tributed to their loss.53
was already more than three hundred years
CONCLUSION
old. The planters who did remain, to grow
cane for the usinas, became known as fornece- At the opening of the nineteenth century,
dores (suppliers of cane) and their former the Forest Zone of Pernambuco was still
position at the peak of the class pyramid largely covered by forest, and a population
was assumed by the owners of the usinas, the of about 200,000 made a living on a scattering
usineiros. Moradores were not immediately of coastal plantations. By the end of the cen-
affected by the change in the system of sugar tury, the forest had been reduced to remnants,
production, though hired labor did become the population had grown to nearly 500,000,
a more common form of labor. But the lavra-
and sugar remained the main crop. The record
of the sugar industry of Pernambuco. through
dores as a class did suffer. No longer did they
the nineteenth century was one of slow growth
have a role in establishing new plantations,
and gradual transformation, in contrast to
since the usinas preferred, where possible, to
the abrupt changes experienced in the West
cultivate their own cane rather than to rely
Indies. How was it that the sugar industry
on sharecropping arrangements. Around the
of Pernambuco survived the disruption of the
usinas, there grew up new nuclei of popula-
Labat system?
tion; small company towns and villages pos-
sessed regularly laid out streets, churches, 52 For the condition of lavradores, moradores, and
wage earners in recent years see Andrade, op. cit.,
50 Based on an analysis of information in the agri-
footnote 17, pp. 109-24, and M. Diegues junior,
"Propriedade e Uso da Terra na Plantation Brasileira,"
cultural section of the 1920 census: Recenseamento
Revista Geogrdfica, Vol. 22 (1958), pp. 66-100,
do Brazil Realizado em 1 de Setembro de 1920, (Rio
especially pp. 78-82. This paper has been published
de Janeiro: Government of Brazil, 1922-30), 5 vols. in English as "Land Tenure and Use in The Bra-
For agriculture, see Vol. 3. There were very few zilian Plantation System," in Plantation Systems of
tractors in the Forest Zone and even at this time The New World (Washington, D.C.: Social Science
ploughs were not used on all plantations. Monographs, VIII, Pan American Union, 1959).
51 R. Fernandes e Silva, "Pernambuco-Sinopse 53 H. C. A. P., 1889, 78, Rio de Janeiro, p. 34. The
Historico do Acucar," Annuaria Aci'careira Para increase in sugar production in Argentina meant
1935, no Vol. number (1935), pp. 119-36, reference eventually a decline in the importance of this market
p. 121; Census of 1920, op. cit., footnote 53. to Pernambuco.
Basically there were three problems which islands, like Pernambuco increased their sugar
faced the sugar producers of tropical Americaproduction during the century. But the com-
in the nineteenth century, all of which had parison cannot be taken much further. In
to be solved if sugar were to continue to contrast to Pernambuco, Cuba did draw on
be cultivated on a commercial scale. These foreign labor, from Yucatan, China, Haiti, and
problems were: Jamaica, which diversified the composition
1) the labor crisis caused by the end of of the local population. And the industries of
slavery, these two islands, with American capital and
2) the finding of capital to finance the im- access to the American market, became in the
provements in milling and manufactur- early years of the twenieth century extremely
ing, which were essential if producers prosperous. The Pernambucan industry was
were to remain competitive and, doing little more than ticking over.
3) maintaining a market for their sugar in It has been persuasively argued that despite
the face of competition from beet and the great increase in the amount of sugar pro-
new producers of cane sugar. duced in the Forest Zone of Pernambuco dur-
ing the nineteenth century, the growth in
In Pernambuco, the existence in the free pop- the region's population and the decline in the
ulation of an alternate form of labor to slavery
world sugar prices meant that there was a de-
and the gradual decline in the importance crease in the per capita income.54 The large
of slavery, in part owing to the long delay in
investment of capital represented by the build-
ending it, meant that abolition rather than ing of plantations in the first half of the cen-
being an abrupt break was the end of a tury, and the establishment of the central
period of transition: the labor crisis was in factory system in the second, did not avert
fact more averted than overcome. Capital toa deepening economic depression. To venture
finance the establishment of the central fac- into the realm of "what would have happened
tory system was partly found abroad, but if," it is tempting to suggest that had the sugar
most came very slowly from local sources with industry of Pernambuco not survived the dis-
the result that the change to the new system ruption of the Labat system, the different
took well over half a century to effect. In forms of land use which would have evolved
the matter of markets, Pernambuco was lucky;might have supported a more egalitarian so-
as it was squeezed out of its traditional mar- ciety than that which at present exists, but
kets new ones appeared. the West Indian experience gives little hope
The experience of the sugar industry of that this society would have been a prosperous
Pernambuco stands apart from the various one. Finally, the history of sugar cultivation
responses of the West Indian producers to in the Forest Zone of Pernambuco illustrates,
the events of the nineteenth century. The as does the history of sugar in Barbados, that
similarities are greatest with Puerto Rico, andsugar can be an extremely stable and persistent
Cuba. In these islands, abolition came late form of tropical land use.
and the existence of a free population also
made the change in labor relatively easy; both 54 Furtado, op. cit., footnote 10, pp. 69-71.

GALLOWAY. The Sugar Industry of Pernambuco During

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The Sugar Industry of Pernambuco during the Nineteenth Century

don the plantations, move onto the unoccupied

of slavery. Many were sol encumbered with

of the freed men PERNAMBUCO left the pla

VACU' *. 2~600 ft.

* ~~~~~50 MILES 15ft

FIG. 2. Thle Forest Zone of Pernambuco.

J i' --, * ~~~~~~~~~REC JFE

tury, this movement of the agricultural f

24 This was reflected in the price of plantations.

X BUILT BEFORE 1900 LAND OVER 650 FT

A BUILT AFTER 1900 RAILWAYS

FIG. 6. Distribution of Central Factories in 1920.

PLANTATIONS ?/o OF PLANTATIONS SENDING

FIG. 7. The extent of the central factory

RURAL ESTABLISHMENTS 0/o OF RURAL ESTABLISHMENTS

1__ _ _ WITH AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS

100 33600 100 0/0

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