The rise of coffee in the Brazilian southeast: tariffs and foreign market potential, 1827-40

Christopher David Absell
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Christopher David Absell: Departamento de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

No 175, Working Papers from European Historical Economics Society (EHES)

Abstract: During the period spanning independence in 1822 to mid-century, Brazil’s southeast shifted from specialising in the export of cane sugar to coffee. This paper explores the mechanism underlying this shift by exploiting a wealth of new monthly data on the Brazilian and international coffee and cane sugar markets during the period 1827-40. I argue that the timing of the coffee boom was driven by a rapid increase in foreign market potential associated with the abolition of the tariff on coffee in the United States. I estimate that American tariff reform served to increase coffee exports and African slave imports by around one-fifth. American firms, with indirect links to the slave trade, rapidly became major players in the export market in Rio de Janeiro, while non-American firms, traditionally specialised in Continental European destinations, turned their sights on the American market.

Keywords: Coffee; Brazil; slavery; tariffs; market potential (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N56 N76 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2020-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-int and nep-lam
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hes:wpaper:0175

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