The Rise of American Enterprises in Brazil

 An "Industrial Revolution" has happened in Brazil over the past thirty years, bringing about a lot of social and economic change. It's not always easy to put a number on big historical events, but if finding the beginning of the Industrial Revolution would help us understand it better, 1930 is probably the best year to do it. In the field of economics, yes, World War I was a first step. In the field of culture, the Week of Modern Art in Sao Paulo in 1922 was the first major display of a truly Brazilian culture. What are the most important events in history? The most important events in history are the Revolution of 1930 (when Getulio Vargas became president) and the Great Depression that started in 1929. A lot of sociologists, economists, and historians call this time period the National Revolution or the Industrial Revolution. W. W. Rostow, on the other hand, likes to call it the "take-off period." It began in Brazil at that time.The take-off stage is very important to the growth of a country, and once it starts, economic growth almost happens on its own.

The elite groups that had controlled Brazil before 1930 started to lose power

During this time, Brazil goes from being an object of history to being a subject of history. She takes charge of her own fate. Up until that point, Brazil could only be thought of as a country legally. Her economy was geared toward Europe and the US; she was an economic unit that worked well with the economies of the developed world. She was very important because she had to trade farm goods for industrial goods that the wealthier people could buy. The economy was very basic, like those in semi-feudal and underdeveloped countries. One of the most important parts of a well-developed economy is the internal market, which didn't become important until after 1930. Brazil's culture was also similar to or a copy of that of the developed countries. Brazil took ideas from other countries without any checks or balances in order to figure out its own problems and plan for changes in the economy, government, and education. European culture and knowledge were just brought over. There wasn't a critical mind that could understand Brazilian issues and fit foreign culture into the Brazilian setting. More or less everyone thought that what worked in Europe or the US would also work in Brazil. This led to a society that wasn't strong and a country that didn't have any life. This is a very different picture now that Brazil has become more industrialized over the last thirty years. During this time, Brazil had its National Revolution, which we can now study in terms of its causes and paths. The point of this study is not to give a full analysis of this subject, though. In order to understand this issue, it is enough to mention the main reason for Brazil's industrialization: it is not possible to import enough produced goods. Three outside factors are important for understanding Brazil's rise to fame.

One World War, the Great Depression in the 1930s (which, strangely enough, helped the Brazilian economy by lowering coffee prices from 22.5 cents a pound in 1929 to 8 cents a pound in 1931)

And finally, World War II were all unintentional outside forces that helped Brazil become more industrialized. Coffee exports dropped from 805.8 million pounds in the 1920s to 337 million pounds in the 1930s, a 64% drop. The government planned steps after World War II to stop the cheap imports of manufactured goods. These steps included the Customs Tax Law, Instruction 70 of the Superintendencia da Moeda e do Credito, and the Carteira de Exporta9ao e Importagao. Because of this security and help, Brazilian industry grew very quickly. By the middle of the 1950s, Brazil had built up its consumer goods industry, except for the auto business. At the moment, the focus is on the growth of heavy industry, which includes the car and tool industries and began to grow in the 1940s. Before the National Revolu- tion, Brazil's social organization was very simple because it was a small, agricultural, and badly developed country on the edge of the world. Brazil was not really a free country after the Declaration of Independence (1822). Brazil did not become a real democracy with the Imperial Constitution of 1824 or the Republican Constitution of 1891. The elections were rigged. As an example, during the First Republic, one party always won the polls, while the other party got exactly one-third of the seats in Congress. Brazil had a society that was both semi-colonial and almost feudal. Its economy was based on the exploitation of land owned by a small group of big planters, and a small but powerful upper class ran the country. In the past, landowners were friends with traders who brought in manufactured goods and exported coffee, sugar, and rubber. After the Declaration of Independence, they became friends with foreign capitalism, especially British capitalism. People didn't really have a say in public matters yet, so the power of the country was held by a small group of people, called an oligarchy.

Before the National Revolution, and still today, most people from the lower classes in Brazil worked in farmland

Some of them were slaves, and others were tourists who came to Brazil to work on coffee farms. Collectively, they make up a big group of poor, illiterate people who live in terrible conditions. They are typical of people who work in a basic economy and are the least productive. Between these two groups was a middle class that didn't say much but was growing. After the Declaration of Independence, this class showed up for the first time and became very important. Since the Portuguese left, the state had to be organized to handle the judicial, legislative, and executive duties, as well as the building of the Army. These jobs were done by the middle class, which was often related to the top class through family ties. Then, because Brazil did not have a royal university, the first law schools were opened to train people in this class. When the slave trade stopped and coffee exports went through the roof, a free labor market formed, and the coastal cities and areas around them started to grow. There was also growth in the middle class. "The role fulfilled by the middle class was considerably enlarged: the more diverse urban activities, the infant commerce, new professions, the Army, the Church, the bureaucracy ". In general, the middle classes "were formed and grown in the framework of our under-develop- ment, as by-products of the urbanization of a country which remained agricultural and did not offer conditions for the participation of the middle classes in the productive process ... Their resulting unavoidably marginal position made them direct parasites of the Government."