Publication: The rise of coffee in the Brazilian south-east: tariffs and foreign market potential, 1827-40
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2020-11-01
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Wiley
Impact
Export
Abstract
During the period spanning independence in 1822 to mid-century, Brazil’s south-east
shifted from specializing in the export of cane sugar to coffee. This article 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. It argues 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 US.
It estimates that American tariff reform served to increase coffee exports and African
slave imports by around one-fifth. American firms, wi th in direct li nks to th e slave
trade, rapidly became major players in the export market in Rio de Janeiro, while
non-American firms, t raditionally s pecialized in c ontinental European destinations,
turned their sights on the American market.
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Keywords
Brazil, Coffe, Market
Bibliographic citation
Absell, C. D. (2020). The rise of coffee in the Brazilian south‐east: tariffs and foreign market potential, 1827–40. The Economic History Review, 73 (4), pp. 964-990.