Economy
The parish maintains its traditional rural character; the majority of its inhabitants are involved in agriculture, principally the raising of cattle, although some carpentry and commercial activities occur in this zone. Milling was also important, resulting in the construction of several mills along the Ribeira das Barrosas and Ribeira da Alagoa.
Also, due to a micro-climate in the area of Alagoa, the parish enjoyed a period of fruit cultivation (something rare to the rest of the island), where oblong apples (similar to pears in shape) were grown. The small port of Alagoa, for many decades, was the point of embarkation for orange exports from the valley; an example of a successes in a peripheral economy, orange exports were sent directly to England, by English and Portuguese ships.
Read more about this topic: Cedros (Santa Cruz Das Flores)
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“The counting-room maxims liberally expounded are laws of the Universe. The merchant’s economy is a coarse symbol of the soul’s economy. It is, to spend for power, and not for pleasure.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get “a good job,” but to perform well a certain work; and, even in a pecuniary sense, it would be economy for a town to pay its laborers so well that they would not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical terms.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)