Industry in Brazil - Origins, 1800s-1840s

Origins, 1800s-1840s

Brazilian industry has its earliest origin in workshops dating from the beginning of the 19th century. Most of the country's industrial establishments appeared in the Brazilian southeast (mainly in the provinces of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and, later, São Paulo), and, according to the Commerce, Agriculture, Factories and Navigation Joint, 77 establishments registered between 1808 and 1840 were classified as “factories” or “manufacturers”. However, most, about 56 establishments, would be considered workshops by today's standards, directed toward the production of soap and candles of tallow, snuff, spinning and weaving, foods, melting of iron and metals, wool and silk, amongst others. They used both slaves and free laborers. There were twenty establishments that could be considered in fact manufacturers, and of this total, thirteen were created between the years 1831 and 1840. All were, however, of small size and more resembled large workshops than proper factories. Still, the manufactured goods were quite diverse: hats, combs, farriery and sawmills, spinning and weaving, soap and candles, glasses, carpets, oil, etc. Probably because of the instability of the regency period, only nine of these establishments were still functioning in 1841, but these nine were of great size and could be considered to “presage a new era for manufactures”. The advent of real manufacturing before the 1840s was extremely limited, due to the self-sufficiency of the regions of the country (mainly farms producing coffee and sugar cane, which produced their own food, clothes, equipment, etc.), the lack of capital, and high costs of production that made it impossible for national manufactures to compete with foreign products. Costs were high because most of the raw materials were imported, even though some of the plants already used machines.