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Mid-to-late 1800sReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Coffee Becomes the Engine of the Empire

A new crop climbs to dominate Brazilian exports and shifts wealth to the southeast

On the timeline · around Mid-to-late 1800s · The Empire of BrazilThe Empire of BrazilThe Old Republic and the Vargas EraCoffee Becomes the Engine of the Empire185018551860186518701875188018851890

Quick facts

Coffee share of exports, 1841-50
50 percent
Coffee share of exports, 1871-80
59.5 percent
Coffee region
Southeast: Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Paraiba Valley
Labor
Enslaved Africans, then European immigrants

What happened

As sugar declined, coffee rose to take its place. The Library of Congress country study records that coffee dominated exports in the last half of the nineteenth century, going from 50 percent of exports in 1841-50 to 59.5 percent in 1871-80. The coffee zone lay in the southeast, in the Paraiba Valley and the highlands of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, and its plantations were worked at first by enslaved Africans and later by waves of European immigrants. Coffee wealth built railroads, ports, and the fortunes of a new planter elite centered on Sao Paulo.

Why it matters

Coffee shifted Brazil's economic and political center of gravity firmly to the southeast and created the Paulista planter class that would dominate national politics for decades after the empire fell. The same coffee economy that enriched Sao Paulo also depended on slavery until 1888 and on cheap immigrant labor afterward, tying Brazil's export boom directly to its two great labor systems.

How we know

The share of coffee in Brazilian exports across the mid and late nineteenth century is documented verbatim in the Library of Congress country study, drawing on imperial trade statistics.

Sources

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Part of a timelineHistory of Brazil24 events · A land of hundreds of nations before 1500, the destination of nearly half of all enslaved Africans brought to the Americas, and the only monarchy the New World's republics ever toleratedView all →
Coffee Becomes the Engine of the Empire · History of Brazil · SourcedStory