RIO DE JANEIRO: AN ENTREPÔT CITY IN THE NETWORK OF...

1 5 t h I N TE R N A T I ON A L P LA N N I N G H I ST O R Y S OC I ETY C ON F ER E N C E

1

RIO DE JANEIRO: AN ENTREPÔT CITY IN THE RIO DE JANEIRO: AN ENTREPÔT CITY IN THE RIO DE JANEIRO: AN ENTREPÔT CITY IN THE RIO DE JANEIRO: AN ENTREPÔT CITY IN THE

NETWORK OF FOODSTUFFS, 1799NETWORK OF FOODSTUFFS, 1799NETWORK OF FOODSTUFFS, 1799NETWORK OF FOODSTUFFS, 1799----1822.1822.1822.1822.

PATRÍCIA GOMES DA SILVEIRA¹PATRÍCIA GOMES DA SILVEIRA¹PATRÍCIA GOMES DA SILVEIRA¹PATRÍCIA GOMES DA SILVEIRA¹ ¹ Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ-Brasil) Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT ABSTRACT ABSTRACT ABSTRACT

The studies about geographic networks in the colonial period are little worked by the geographers because for some researchers the past is just an auxiliary to understand the present. In this way, in this present work we intend to discuss the factors and processes involved in the formation of a network of foodstuffs in the colonial period, establishing as main axle the partner-economic relations that the coastal ports, established between it. In this research, Rio de Janeiro appears as an entrepôt city of the Atlantic trade and cabotage commerce connecting more or less distant points of the Portuguese empire.

Keywords: Cabotagem trade, network, Rio de Janeiro, Historical Geography.

INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION

For a long time economic history interpreted the colonial economy as a succession of the great cycles (sugar, gold, coffee) not valuing the logics and the economical practices established in the colonial Brazil.

The domestic market and the subsistence economy according to Lenharo (1979) were understood as subordinated to the colonial export economy, what was seen as the reason of being of the colonial Brazilian economy. As Prado Júnior ([1945] 1978) rightly points out the exportation of the tropical sort and precious metals were the essential element of the economic activities established by Portugal in Brazil.

The internal trade was seen as an accessory of the agro-exportation economy that was a sector mainly maritime. This sector was responsible for the formation of important ports like: Salvador (BA), Recife (PE), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), São Luis (MA) and Belem (PA). It was around of these ports that were concentrated the more lucrative economic activities of the colonial Brazil, destined, over all, to the exportation of the “kings-product” (sugar, gold and coffee) (LINHARES, 1996).

Some authors, however, had started to contest the validity of these clarifying models that super valued the exporting economy in detriment of the recognition that a domestic market existed with a proper logic of organization (FRAGOSO, 1998; FLORENTINO, 2010).

C i t i e s , n a t i o n s a n d r e g i o n s i n p l a n n in g h i s t o r y

However, the question about the formation of a network of supplying of foodstuffs was little valued by the researchers. In this direction, the present work intends to discuss the factors and processes involved in the formation of a network of supplying of foodstuffs in the colonial period, establishing as main axle the partner-economic relations that the places, specifically the coastal ports, established between it.

We recognize that the nets contribute to strengthen the territorial inequalities, operating on the one hand with places with raised centrality, as: the global center of the city, center business-oriented and on the other hand operating with cloudy places (MUSSO, 2002). According to Santos ([1996] 2006) in the same space we can have overlapping of nets being one the tributary and another one the principal.

A central component in the network analysis is to consider its unstable, concentrative and dispersive character and also the multiplicity of geographical and organizational scales at which networks are manifested (DICKEN et al, 2001).

In this sense, we can affirm that the Portuguese empire was formed by an imperial market that crosses the oceans connecting the Portuguese colonies (FRAGOSO, 2002). This complex network was composed by economical trades that included distinct economical and social structures (Portugal, Africa, Brazil and India). Textiles and slaves were the main products that connected different chains of the Portuguese empire.

The trade between Rio de Janeiro and Angola was composed by a variety of products. Rio de Janeiro exported sugar, “aguardente”, tobacco, coffee, rice, cotton and farinha to Angola and received slaves that were redistributed by another places in Brazil, like Minas Gerais, Rio Grande, Campos and as Santos (1993) puts some slaves were sent to the Spanish colonies in America.

To sum up our understanding about networks we emphasize that networks will not be understandable if we only see them from the local and regional expressions (SANTOS, [1996] 2006).

SUMACAS AND BERGANTINS: THE NETWORK OF SUMACAS AND BERGANTINS: THE NETWORK OF SUMACAS AND BERGANTINS: THE NETWORK OF SUMACAS AND BERGANTINS: THE NETWORK OF FOODSTUFOODSTUFOODSTUFOODSTUFFS IN THE COLONIAL BRAZILFFS IN THE COLONIAL BRAZILFFS IN THE COLONIAL BRAZILFFS IN THE COLONIAL BRAZIL

Until the discovery of gold mines the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro had a secondary role in the colonial Brazilian economy. With the gold cycle this city became the main export port and would control de regional economy.

Geopolitical factors determined in 1763 that the new capital of Brazil was Rio de Janeiro which brought a new cycle of transformations and important changes in the landscape of the city (ABREU, 2010).

When the Royal Family arrived at Rio de Janeiro (1808), the city becomes the main city of the Portuguese Empire. This event brought a lot of improvements in the physical appearance of Rio de Janeiro, in relation to its defense, paving of streets, emergence of new geographical objects in the urban space, expansion


3

of urban space.1 The arrival of the Royal Family contributed to the gradual changes of the structure and spatial organization of a typical colonial city to a city post-colonial, but not capitalist.

From mid-nineteenth century, Rio de Janeiro began his journey as the main political and economical center in Brazil, through the port and financial function and after by its industrial and administrative function (BERNARDES, 1961).

As the result of the economic interests that had guided the occupation of Brazil, based mainly in the coast, what really existed was an archipelago of ports, each one encircled by its agricultural zone and strong connected to a central place (PRADO JÚNIOR, ([1945] 1978). We can quote the Guanabara Recôncavo and the “porto das caixas” (chests) which were connected to the port of Rio de Janeiro and were responsible for provide this city with sugar, vegetables and other commodities (FRIDMAN and FERREIRA, s/d; ABREU, 2010).

In eighteenth century the cabotage commerce assumed significant importance in articulating points of the territory. The vessels were supplied mainly by foodstuffs, wood, leather, cotton, among others. These products destined, over all, to the urban supplying of cities as Rio de Janeiro, Campos dos Goitacases (RJ), Salvador (BA), Recife (PE), however the net of supplying formed by the flows of cabotage commerce was more complex than the simple linking between the coastal ports.

The primary source consulted in this work consists of Codices of Boats (Códice de Embarcações), available in the General Archive of the City of Rio de Janeiro (AGCRJ). This source portraits the commerce of cabotage throughout our coast between 1795 and 1828, however, in front of the best systematization and frequency of the data, the temporal clipping of the present research is the period among 1799 and 1822.

From the survey carried through in the Codices of Embarcações (AGCRJ) it was possible to register in first place the places that Rio de Janeiro established commercial flows and who are the actors (merchandise) that composed these flows. Moreover, the source also makes possible to quantify the economic exchanges, its seasonality, price of the product and the destination in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

From the interpretation of the data we can affirm that the supplying net was centered in the regional scale of the Center-South of Brazil, with prominence for the littoral ports and the captainships of the current regions South and Southeastern (FRAGOSO, 2002). During the mining cycle, Rio de Janeiro

1 For more information about this theme we indicate the follow lectures: ABREU, M.A. Evolução Urbana do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Pereira Passos, 4°edição, [1987] 2006; BENCHIMOL, J. L. . . . Pereira Passos: um Haussmann tropical: a renovação urbana da cidade do Rio de Janeiro no início do século XX,,,, Rio de Janeiro: Departamento Geral de Documentação e Informação Cultural, 1990.


became the major port of exporting the gold to Portugal, which certainly moved the economical center to Southeast:

For 1770 return, Rio de Janeiro was also the main center of the coastal commerce of foodstuffs that if directed to the city, radiating themselves northward until the Bahia (flour) and for the south until the Rio Grande Do Sul (charque and wheat). If Rio de Janeiro had developed as a center and a warehouse for the Atlantic and coastal treatment, also becomes the center of an extensive offers in the commercial network, specially of foodstuffs, enclosing great extensions of the center and the south of Brazil (RUSSEL-WOOD, 1998:22).

To understand the spatial dimension of the supplying net we cross the data on the origin of the boats that had arrived at the port of Rio de Janeiro and it’s quantitative. To complete the end of eighteenth century an edition of the Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro (RIHGB) presents the quantitative, the origin and the products brought for boats that arrived in the port of Rio de Janeiro, what give to us data to analyze 1791 and 1793. (Cartograms 1, 2, 3, 4 Cartograms 1, 2, 3, 4 Cartograms 1, 2, 3, 4 Cartograms 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5and 5and 5and 5).


5

Cartogram 1: Number of vessels that reach the port of Rio de Janeiro and their respective origin, 1791. Source: RIHGB, 1965, vol. 266


Cartogram 2: Number of vessels that reach the port of Rio de Janeiro and their respective origin,1793. Source: RIHGB- 1965, vol. 26


7

Cartogram 3: Number of vessels that reach the port of Rio de Janeiro and their respective origin, 1802. Source: Códice de Embarcações-AGCRJ


9



The spatial clipping of the cartograms puts in relief the South-Southeast regions. We perceive a strong connection between Rio de Janeiro and the “captaincies of low”, in special with the cities of the current states like Rio Grande do Sul and Sao Paulo, on the other hand the relation with the captaincies of northeast was little significant in the cabotage commerce.

The city of Rio de Janeiro appears to be the center of the net of supplying of foodstuffs. This affirmation is related to the classification of Johnson (1970) on the cities that compose the dendrítica net: “The goods destined to the exportation and a variety of products for the urban population are cultivated in “near agricultural market”, are processed in the strategical cities and later they follow for the port cities” (JOHNSON, 1970:85).

Observing the cartograms we can affirm that in 1791 and 1793 Rio Grande, Campos dos Goytacases and Parati had a great importance in the cabotage commerce. These ports began to have a more regular contact with Rio de Janeiro for sale the consumption goods as well as export products. In the years in screen these cities had sent an average of 80 boats for Rio de Janeiro.

These cities appear as the main node of the net, therefore the number of boats proceeding from these places presents the biggest values, except in the year 1813, where it has a reduction in the flows between Rio de Janeiro and these cities.

When dealing with the effect of distance Pumain and Saint-Julien (2010) recognize that the spatial interactions are influenced in a great measure for the distance, so if the distance increases the space interactions are less intense and frequent.

We perceive that a distant port like Rio Grande had one strong spatial interaction with the city-port of Rio de Janeiro, thus, we must relativize the role of distance (MARCONDES, 2001). According to Menz (2006) in the period between 1802 and 1828 Rio Grande was responsible for 73% of importations that came from Rio de Janeiro and a great part of the products came from Europe.

In this case, Rio de Janeiro served as an entrepôt-city of the Atlantic commerce, since the leathers of Rio Grande were exported by the port of Rio de Janeiro. Another importance of the Rio Grande’s port is the connection with the “Bacia do Prata”. According to Santos (1993) Rio de Janeiro send and received products from “Bacia do Prata” by the ports of Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Rio Grande (RS).

A second explanation for this strong relation of Rio de Janeiro and distant ports can be found in Pumain and Saint-Julien (2010), which proposed that when dealing with the productive specialization of a place, this contributes to individualize this space unit as well as developing the space interactions between the specialized place and the other spaces that searches for complementarities (SLEMIAN and PIMENTA, 2008).

In other words: “A specialization notion is associated with the idea of functional interdependence, space division of the production and the work. For certain activity, the particular localization sends in them to a distinguishing attractiveness of the places (PUMAIN and SAINT-JULIEN, 2010:60 and 61).”


1

In this sense, according to Dicken et al (2001) a spatial configuration of network is created and connected to other configuration at smaller and larger geographical scales, so, to understand the network of foodstuffs is necessary to analyze another scales- local, regional, national, global.

The city of Parati achieved a great importance in Rio’s internal trade specially for sending gold to this port. In this way, the city of Rio de Janeiro became the entrepôt for a land based trade. By the end of eighteenth century Parati was an important point of penetration in direction to the sertões (hinterland), what surely guarantee centrality in relation to the other ports that surrounded Parati as Angra and Mambucaba ports.

The ports of Itaguaí and Guaratiba presents a reduced flow of boats in the spatial interaction with Rio's port, however, this do not reduce its importance in the supplying of the city. Itaguaí, for example, was an important supplier of rice in set with Paranaguá (PR) and Vitória (ES) moreover; Itaguaí also exported the production of next localities, as Marapicu.

A great number of rivers surrounded the city of Rio de Janeiro and its recôncavo which makes possible that a great number of vessels circulated by the waters of Guanabara Bay. Some small ports were important for sending foodstuffs and wood to the city, but they were famous for the high number of vessels that sending sugar to Rio de Janeiro, so these ports were called “porto das caixas”.

An important port in this region was the port of Estrela, a few miles of Inhomerim River. Estrela was the main terminus for the roads to Minas Gerais, so this place was the scene of constant activity, with mule trains from the interior and boats from Rio de Janeiro.

The main vessels that arrived in Rio’s port were “lanchas” (launches), “sumacas” (smacks) and “bergantins” (brigs). Each vessel has its singularity, especially in the tonnage and type of trip. For example launches and smacks were indicated for small and medium range trade, but brigs were more used in longer trips. It was very common that vessels like brigs, “galera” (galleys) and ships were used in the trips to Portugal, Africa, Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Montevideo (Uruguay).

It’s very difficult to precise the tonnage of this vessels, as pointed by Florentino (2010) until 1830 there was not a standard measurement, however we can quote the average tonnage: launches 50 tons, smacks 80 tons and brigs 130-180 tons (SANTOS, 1993).

If some behavior characterizes the interactions between the port of Rio de Janeiro and the other ports, are the intense partner-economic relations that were established between Rio de Janeiro and the cities of Rio Grande, Campos and Parati, which concentrated the production of its hinterland and then embarked it for the “Carioca city”. The circulation of commodities, information and people clearly demonstrate that the space is organized by actors and influences that are situated in another scales (LIVINGSTONE, 2003).

The increasing demand for foods in Rio de Janeiro was confronted by the reduced capacity of its hinterland to supply the population thus was necessary that other localities were inserted in the cabotage commerce. According to


Marcondes (2001) the population of the city in 1799 was around forty-three thousand people, in 1808 was sixty thousand and in 1819 was ninety thousand people:

(...) Rio De Janeiro would only have been exception to this rule, because it counted on the aid of the coastal regions that formed the south coast of the Colony (the old captainship of São Vicente and in century XVIII Santa Catarina and Rio Grande Do Sul), that they had been specialized in the food production for having poor ground, not adequate to the sugar cane production (ABREU, 2010:64).

The port of Rio de Janeiro functioned at first as a port-node for the export economy and distribution of imports, between 1796 and 1811 this port was responsible for 38% of exportations and 34% of importations and on the other side the port of Salvador was responsible, respectively, for 27% and 26%. This numbers gives us a real notion of the importance of Rio de Janeiro as a major mercantile space in the Portuguese empire (FRAGOSO, 2002).


1

CONCLUSIONSCONCLUSIONSCONCLUSIONSCONCLUSIONS

Past, present and future are not categories that define a social science. The dictatorship of the present that invigorated for much time in geography, today does not make more sense, having the past its proper importance, not being more necessary to be extended until the present.

The different distribution of the ways of circulation in the Brazilian territory can be understood from the imperatives of the occupation and peopling of Brazil in a past time. The principle of occupation of the coast contributed to strengthen the dichotomy between the coast and the hinterland.

The spatial interactions were marked by anti-symmetrical flows that cover the nets, having strengthened the attractiveness that each place offers. Unstable in the time and in construction in time and space, are the elements that put in relief the characteristics of the networks and that in fact contribute for its understanding and its drawing in the territory.

The net of supplying of foodstuffs was marked by an unstable interconnection by the places that formed. A plurality of points in this in case that represented for the ports and/or the cities in the hinterland of Brazil was articulated by innumerable ramifications that left the privileged points of the territory.

As the city’s population grew and it was assuming new urban functions was necessary to expand de urban occupation as well as install new geographical objects in the space. The city had been established as the “gold port” and it brought some improvements to the city, especially in relation to its defense.

The centrality of Rio de Janeiro has not imposed only in America, but in all the Portuguese empire, especially after 1808.


REFREFREFREFEEEERENCESRENCESRENCESRENCES

ABREU, M.A. Geografia Histórica do Rio de Janeiro (1502-1700). Rio de Janeiro, 2010.

BERNARDES, L.M.C. Expansão do Espaço Urbano no Rio de Janeiro. In: Revista Brasileira de Geografia. jul-set, 1961.

BROWN, L.V. Internal Commerce in a Colonial Economy: Rio de Janeiro and its hinterland, 1790-1822. University of Virginia, P.H.D Thesis, 1986.

DICKEN, P. Et al. Chains and networks, territories and scales: towards a relational framework for analyzing the global economy. In: Global Networks, no. 2, 2001, 89-112.

FLORENTINO, M. Em Costas Negras: uma história do tráfico de escravos entre a África e o Rio de Janeiro, séculos XVIII e XIX. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2010.

FRAGOSO, J.L. Homens de Grossa Aventura- acumulação e hierarquia na praça mercantil do Rio de Janeiro (1790-1830).... Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1998.

FRAGOSO, J.L. Mercados e Negociantes Imperiais: um ensaio sobre a economia do império português (séculos XVIII e XIX). In: História: questões e debates, No. 36, 2002, 99-127.

FRIDMAN, F. e FERREIRA, M.S. N. Os Portos do Rio de Janeiro Colonial. In: Observatório Geográfico da América Latina, s/d, 1-8.

FURTADO, C. Formação Econômica do Brasil. . . . São Paulo: Editora Nacional, ([1959] 1989).

JOHNSON, E.A.J.The Organization of Space in Developing Countries. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1970.

LENHARO A. As Tropas da Moderação.... Rio de Janeiro: Secretaria Municipal de Cultura, Turismo e Esportes- Biblioteca Carioca, 1979.

LINHARES, M.Y.L. Pecuária, Alimentos e Sistemas Agrários no Brasil (séculos XVII e XVIII). In: Revista Tempo, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1996, 132-150.

LIVINGSTONE, D. Putting Science in its Place. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

MARCONDES, R.L. Formação da Rede Regional de Abastecimento do Rio de Janeiro: a presença dos negociantes de gado (1801-1811). In: Revista TOPOI, março, 2001, 41-71.

MENZ, M.M. Centros e Periferias Coloniais: o comércio do Rio de Janeiro com Santos e Rio Grande (1802-1818). In: Revista de História, Vol. 154, No. 1, 2006, 251-266.

PRADO JUNIOR, C. História Econômica do Brasil. São Paulo: Brasiliense, ([1945] 1978).


1

PUMAIN, D. and SAINT-JULIEN, T. Analyse Spatiale- les interactions. Paris: Armand Colin, 2010.

REVISTA DO INSTITUTO HISTÓRICO E GEOGRÁFICO BRASILEIRO (RIHGB)- 1965, jan/mar, Vol. 266, p.227-229; pp.298-301.

RUSSEL-WOOD, A.J. Centros e Periferias do Mundo Luso-Brasileiro, 1500-1808. In: Revista Brasileira de História, Vol. 18, No. 36, 1998, 1-28.

SANTOS, C. M. O Rio de Janeiro e a Conjuntura Atlântica. Rio de Janeiro: Expressão e Cultura, 1993.

SANTOS, M. A Natureza do Espaço: técnica e tempo, razão e emoção. São Paulo: EDUSP, 4° edição, ([1996] 2006).

SLEMIAN, A. and PIMENTA, J. P.G. A Corte e o Mundo- uma história do ano em que a família Real portuguesa chegou ao Brasil. São Paulo: Alameda, 2008.

RIO DE JANEIRO: AN ENTREPÔT CITY IN THE NETWORK OF...

Documents

Transcript of RIO DE JANEIRO: AN ENTREPÔT CITY IN THE NETWORK OF...