Os múltiplos de porcos e diamantes: a economia escrava de Minas Gerais no século XIX

Abstract

In a series of studies, Robert B. Martins and Amilcar Martins Filho have argued that Minas Gerais was one the major importers of African slaves in Brazil during the first half of the nineteenth century. This article suports their findings, but it challenges the Martins' explanation for the Mineiro slave trade. It is argued here that it was not primarilly the abundance of land (and consequent lack of a free labor market) which caused Mineiro employers to continue to purchase bondsmen. Other factors were important 1) the existence in Minas of a significant extractive, agricultural and livestock economy producing for external markets (elsewhere in Brazil and abroad); and 2) the high price of imported goods in Minas (resulting from high transportation costs) which guaranteed that the export sectors' demand for goods and services exerted an especially large multiplier effect on the sectors producing for the province's internal market With the relative decline of the traditional export sectors in Minas during the second half of the nineteenth century, slavery in the province - outside regions linked directly or indirectly to coffee production - also showed a strong tendency to decline, contrary to whatthe Martins have argued.