To talk about the starting point of industrialization in Brazil, we must trace the history of Brazil to the colonial periods.
During the colonial periods of Brazil (1500-1815) ruled by the Portuguese, there were many attempts to embark on industrialization, but they failed to achieve their goals due to policy constraints Portuguese. It is because of the economic principle of the Portuguese in those periods called “mercantilism”. The Portuguese did not want industrialized Brazilian industries to damage their domestic industries. Thus, no industry was able to establish roots in Brazil to protect the Portuguese products that were being marketed in Brazilian territory. (2)
Efforts were also made during the Empire of Brazil (1822-1889). During the reign of Dom Pedro II, Brazilian businessmen such as Irineu Evangelista de Souza, Visconde de Mauá, and foreign groups invested in railways, shipyards and banks. The textile, clothing, food, beverage and tobacco industries also had a considerable, but uneven, expansion. Unfortunately, Brazilian foreign policy favored agriculture, which meant that foreign competition would discourage continued investment in the industrialization process. (3) As a result, the first efforts proved unsuccessful.
What happened after the end of the Empire of Brazil was no different. The manufacturing growth of the period did not generate significant structural changes (5), which implies that industrialization in Brazil it was practically unable to change the entire Brazilian economy even in the period immediately after the Empire Brazilian.
Large-scale industrialization in Brazil began in the process of overcoming the economic crisis: the damage that Brazilian economy, which focused mainly on coffee production, experimented during the 1930s. It was because of the drastic decline in the price of coffee in the world economy. Both the unit price and the quantity of Latin American exports fell, with the result that their total value for the years 1930-34 was 48% lower than it had been for 1925-29. (5) Overcapacity in coffee production and the Great Depression together aggravated the situation of the national economy, which took almost a decade for the Brazilian government to resolve. Brazilians were desperate to find an economical solution to this problem.
As Brazil was not the only country that suffered from the international economic crisis, many other Latin American countries also had to find a solution. To find a solution to this problem, in the late 1940s, one of the region's leading economists, Raul Prebisch, published an incisive critique of liberal doctrines. His arguments provided the intellectual basis for the import substitution industrialization (ISI) policies (6) that prevailed from that time until the 1980s. (7) Import substitution industrialization (ISI) is a commercial and economic policy based on the premise that a country should try to reduce its external dependence through local production of industrialized products (8).
Latin American leaders had two options for responding to this global economic crisis. The first was to strengthen links with already industrialized and developed countries to secure and protect a stable share of the market. And the other was to embark on industrialization. The aim of embarking on industrialization was to achieve greater economic independence and create jobs for the working classes. Brazil selected the second option that led the country to industrialize. Brazilians realized that Brazil could no longer depend exclusively on exports of primary goods and that it was necessary to promote economic diversification. And, therefore, large-scale industrialization could take place in Brazil. And this new economic policy chosen by Brazilians led the nation to succeed in industrialization.
There has been a vigorous development in the heavy industries (steel, metallurgy, petrochemical, chemical, etc.) that produce manufactured products, led by large state-owned companies (Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, Petrobras, Siderbras, etc). Considerable progress has also been made in more advanced sectors: in the aeronautics and aerospace, telecommunications, electronics and in the production of machinery and other equipment for capital. (9)
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To elaborate on this topic, the main focus of industrialization in Brazil was on heavy industries, as I mentioned earlier. These include ironworks, textile and garment manufacturing, food processing, furniture manufacturing, tanning and leather goods. (10) of the statistics regarding the production of iron ore in Brazil from 1911 to 1960 (11) presented in ‘International Historical Statistics’, we can easily see that the amount of extracted iron ore has increased with time. Also from the table on the production of natural gas from the year 1929 to 1960 (12) presented in the same source, there is It has been proven that natural gas could only be obtained after 1942 and mining in Brazil began to grow at the beginning of the 1950s. In addition, the table referring to crude oil production in Brazil with a schedule from the year 1915 to 1959 (13) presented in the same source, also shows the increase in crude oil production over the years old.
One thing we should focus on is that all of these charts have one thing in common: each mining industry's output is skyrocketing as time passes. This means that the Brazilian government has paid great attention to these heavy industries, which practically lead Brazil to become one of the largest heavy industry countries in the world.
Transport is also essential for a country to industrialize. Without a well-built transport system throughout the territory, it is impossible to transmit manufactured products and raw materials.
Throughout much of Brazilian history, the different regions of the country have remained isolated from one another, but this has changed. drastically after World War II, first with the growth of air transport and, two decades later, with the extension of a modern road network. (14) Brazilians really were the pioneers in this field. They also argue that the first men to fly are not the Wright brothers, but a Brazilian named Alberto Santos-Dumont. Anyway, all capitals and important cities in Brazil have a big airport, and most of the smaller cities are served by jet planes. Few places are without at least one dirt landing space. (15) These excellent air services that were maintained in all parts of Brazil created the basis for industrialization to take hold.
The industries mentioned above were able to grow to a much greater degree compared to other industries that failed to gain government support. However, there are other fields of industries that have also been successful despite insufficient support. Telecommunications, electronics and the production of other machinery and other capital equipment improved during Brazil's industrialization period as well.
In short, Brazil has become one of the leading industrialized countries, supporting every conceivable variety of industrial activity. As industrialization had taken place in Brazil, the domestic manufacturing sector grew enormously during the 1930s and 1940s. The import substitution industrialization strategy did work.
Domestic manufactures replaced non-durable imported goods (clothes, shoes, etc.) and, with construction of the immense steel mill in Volta Redonda, the first steps were taken in the replacement of semi-finished products finished. Much of the existing industrial base, however, was created in the 30 years between 1950 and 1980, during which there was an astonishing growth spurt producing an average annual increase of 7% in GDP (corresponding to 4.3% per inhabitant). During this period, Brazil was also able to replace imported durable consumer goods, starting with automobiles; in the late 1950s, almost all of the world's major manufacturers decided to start car production entirely within Brazil, in the urban agglomeration around São Paulo. (16) Since 1967, Brazilian industry has contributed more to the gross domestic product than agriculture.
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This video will address industrialization in Brazil between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
Industrialization in Brazil can be divided into four periods, see:
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