My reply to email received from Vitoria Saddi after she contacted me about her paper, and her continuing research on land rights in Brazil.
July 22, 2008
Dear Vitoria,
I found the paper that you wrote: “When Do Land Rights Become Effective? Evidence From Brazil and Other Coffee Growing Regions” -By Jeffrey B. Nugent and Vitoria Saddi – University of Southern California.
Paper to be presented at MIT September 27-28, 2002
I started reading your paper, and I read from page 1 to 7.
You are writing about my family from 1822 to 1930.
First, Jose Bonifacio prepared the decrees that were signed in 1822 regarding land rights.
You can find the info at: “Obras Cientificas, Politicas e Sociais de Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva” By Edgar de Cerqueira Falcao (There are 3 volumes) but you can find this info on Vol. II pg. 251 – 252.
My great/great grandfather was the richest man in Brazil during his lifetime – and, he also was the largest landowner in Brazil. (The Barao of Souza Queiroz.)
His father the Brigadeiro Luiz Antonio was one of the richest men in Portugal, before he came to Brazil a little before the Royal Family in the early 1800’s.
The state of Sao Paulo was ruled by my family from the early 1800’s to the mid-1930’s, and you can read about it at:
Brazzil magazine - January 2003
“The Brazilian Ruling Class”
In 1816, he met a very wealthy man to help him with the finance—the Brigadier Luiz Antonio de Souza who was a pioneer in the development of the São Paulo economy. The Brigadier had introduced to the province a new system of banking credit. They became partners in a company called Vergueiro & Souza; Vergueiro contributed his two farms, and the Brigadier contributed the financing.
In April 23, 1821, when the new provisory government of the São Paulo province was formed, Vergueiro was chosen as Minister of Agriculture of the new government.
Vergueiro was against slavery, and he was the first farmer in Brazil, starting in 1840, to bring over three thousand immigrants from Germany to work as farm hands in the country. After a very distinguished career, Vergueiro died in Rio de Janeiro, on September 18, 1859.
Senator Vergueiro became one of the three regents in 1828, when D. Pedro I abdicated on behalf of his 5-year old son. And he requested to not be reappointed in 1832 as a regent; because he wanted to go back to manage his businesses.
Senator Vergeiro’s daughter was my great-great-grandmother, and she married the Barao de Souza Queiroz, and had 13 children of which my great-grandfather was the youngest of the bunch.
Olavo Egydio Setubal (the major shareholder of Banco Itau) is also a great-great-grandson of the Barao of Souza Queiroz. Olavo Setubal is descendent of the oldest son of the Barao of Souza Queiroz.
Last year our family published “Album de Familia Souza Queiroz”, and in that book you have the story of that side of the family including their land holdings – all 13 children inherited a large farm, and the rest of land holdings I believe they became part of the Institute Ana Rosa; which is one of the best charitable institutions in the emerging markets, and they have been operating for over 130 years, and our family controls that institution.
The book also mention all the politicians of our family including governors, senators, and so forth, and the cities that were started in the state of Sao Paulo by our family. The book also mention the railroad and navigation company owned by the Barao of Souza Queiroz, and his bank “Banco Comercio Industria” among other investments in warehouses and so forth….
You can find the information about these books at:
1) Familia Souza Queiroz
2) Album de Familia Souza Queiroz
3) They also have various books about the Institute Ana Rosa.
On page 9 of your paper, you mentioned the evolutionary theory of property rights, and you talk about that the property rights might arise in people as in slavery. And you mention slavery emancipation in 1888.
My family had the most impact on the subject of slavery in Brazil than anyone else, starting with Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva, and his brother Martim Francisco, and later Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva (O Moco) - (The Young).
Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva (O Moco) - (The Young) was a son of Martim Francisco, and grandson of Jose Bonifacio (The Patriarch of Independence). The daughter of Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva (O Moco) was Maria Flora de Andrada e Silva – she got married with the youngest son of the Barao of Souza Queiroz.
Maria Flora de Andrada e Silva, and the youngest son of the Barao of Souza Quiroz were the parents of my grandmother.
In another words Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva (O Moco) is my great-great-grandfather. Besides being one of the most famous literary figures of his time in Brazil, he was also a senator, and his claim to fame on the floor of the senate, was his fight to end slavery in Brazil.
You can read about him at:
As you can see we had a very close family relationship between the “Andrada family” and the “Souza Queiroz family”. The Andrada family had been against slavery since the early 1800’s, and it was one of the major reasons why Jose Bonifacio was exiled from Brazil.
The Barao of Souza Queiroz was one of the major slave owners in Brazil, since he had so much land. But his partner Senator Vergueiro who had a very close relationship with Jose Bonifacio, and the Andrada family going back decades, he was also against slavery.
As I mentioned above Senator Vergueiro was the first person in Brazil who started importing labor from Europe, to work on his vast farms in Sao Paulo state, and he started that trend in 1840 almost 50 years before the emancipation of slavery in Brazil.
And one of the reasons why that became possible was because keeping slaves is a very expensive proposition (since the owner of the slaves are responsible for all their expenses including feeding, healthcare, and so on.) At that point, had started being cheaper for the farmers to import labor from Europe since the farmer had to pay only wages to this people, and there were plenty of people willing to come and work.
By 1888 at the time of slavery emancipation in Brazil, it was cheaper for a farmer to hire workers than the up keep of the slaves. The farmers did not put a fight to end slavery in Brazil around 1888, and they made their decision based more on economic reasons than anything else.
I just checked very quickly the other pages, and I noticed on Pg. 15 that you mentioned Senator Vergueiro – but the information that I gave you is the correct information our family has all documented – the year was 1840, and he brought 3,000 German immigrants to work on his farm.
I noticed that you compared Sao Paulo, and Minas, and Rio on Pg. 31, it seems to me that you were trying to find some kind of justification why other states could not replicate the success of Sao Paulo.
I will give to you the reason in a nutshell:
My great/great grandfather Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva (O Moco), his father Martim Francisco, and Jose Bonifacio (The Patriarch) the base of their political power was in Sao Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro.
Jose Bonifacio had been Prime Minister, vice-president of the province of Sao Paulo, and deputado representing Sao Paulo. Martin Francisco had been deputado also for Sao Paulo, and he was Finance Minister of Brazil in two different occasions. And I am not mentioning Antonio Carlos the other brother of Jose Bonifacio, who also had been deputado, and he started a revolution for Brazil’s independence in the North of Brazil in 1817, and also became Prime Minister when D. Pedro II was emancipated – Martim Francisco and Antonio Carlos were responsible for the emancipation of D. Pedro II, and his brother Jose Bonifacio had died in 1838. (I will quote below some information about it from my book about Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva, but I am not a descendant of Antonio Carlos.)
Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva (O Moco) (1827–1886) had a younger brother called Antonio Carlos Ribeiro de Andrada (1836–1893), and this brother had to move to Minas Gerais for health reasons. Today we still have many politicians in Minas Gerais, who are descendants of Antonio Carlos, and you can see the entire Andrada Family tree at:
Chart with Andrada family tree
As I mentioned to you, what really made all the difference was the fact that the Barao of Souza Queiroz besides being a great businessman, he also was the richest man in Brazil.
The Barao of Souza Queiroz was a senator representing the state of Sao Paulo, and up to today, he still is the person who was a senator for the longest time in Brazilian history – he still was a senator when he died after being a senator for 42 years.
****
When I started reading your paper the first thing that came to mind was the size of Brazil and the size of its population during the period 1800 to 1930.
I noticed also the info about your PhD dissertation – The Role of Coffee in the Creation of Institutions in Brazil (1830 – 1930).
I remember seeing Hernando de Soto – the Peruvian economist – talking about his book “The Mystery of Capital” on the talk show circuit on American TV.
I remember the point he was trying to make about property rights, and if these people could register the property, then they could use it as collateral for loans, and so on; creating a lot of wealth, and lifting all the boats……
But at the end of the day, the reality is that these poor people would end up selling their property at a bargain price, and a handful of people would end up owning the entire pie.
Giving property rights to all these people who live on the land like the favelas surrounding Rio de Janeiro – just would make easier for a few people to buy them out, and take over the entire area in no time.
In that case the property rights would not help the poor people as he argued, but it would make easier for the property to be taken away from them.
By the way, why are you so worried about property rights in Brazil?
The landowners, and property owners are the people who should be worried about because of the “Sem Terra”, and the “Sem Teto.”
Now quoting from my book: “Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva – The Greatest Man in Brazilian History” by Ricardo C. Amaral – “José Bonifacio was against slavery, and he wanted to free the slaves. He was also in favor of major agrarian reform. These two issues which José Bonifácio was fighting so hard for, it would have shaken the Brazilian economy of his time to its foundations. If he were able to end slavery, and get his agrarian reform proposal passed, the result would have been that the Brazilian economy would have to go through a major restructuring. These would have been radical changes to the structure of the Brazilian economy of his time, and these changes made everyone involved very worried including the landowners, slaveowners, and slave traders, and these were a very powerful groups of people of his day.”
I am sure you are aware that Jose Bonifacio wanted major agrarian reform in Brazil, and I am sending you a copy of a letter that I sent to the editor of The New York Times after they pissed me off with one of their negative articles about Brazil. (see attachment)
I have a question for you.
Why are you so concerned with land rights in Brazil?
I am thinking about writing an article saying that the Brazilian government should limit the amount of land that foreigners can buy in Brazil, and after a certain size foreigners can be only minority shareholders in land ownership in Brazil.
What kind of information about land rights are you requesting from Vale do Rio Doce?
You seem to know a lot about land rights in Brazil.
I hope the enclosed information might be of help to you.
Best regards,
Ricardo C. Amaral
PS: Quoting from my book about the biography of Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva regarding the emancipation of Dom Pedro II:
Martin Francisco and Antonio Carlos
Martim Francisco Ribeiro de Andrada: He was born on June 19, 1775, in Santos, Province of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He died on February 23, 1844.
Antonio Carlos Ribeiro de Andrada Machado e Silva: He was born on November 1, 1773 in Santos, Province of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He died in 1845.
Antonio Carlos was working in Olinda, Pernambuco Province as a magistrate when a Republican Revolution broke out in that province in 1817. He was asked to the leadership of that revolution. He even sent a letter to Jose Bonifacio in Portugal dated April 14, 1817, describing what was happening. In that letter he mentioned how well the revolution had turned out.
A short time later, Jose Bonifacio found out that the revolution in Pernambuco had been a disaster for the revolutionists. Most of the leaders of that revolution had been hanged. The only reason they spared Antonio Carlos' life was because they knew he was a brother of Jose Bonifacio. (The revolution in Pernambuco was crushed by the Portuguese, and lasted only 75 days)
Antonio Carlos spent four years in jail for participating in that revolution. When Jose Bonifacio returned to Brazil at the end of 1819, his brother Antonio Carlos was still in prison in the province of Bahia.
After Jose Bonifacio's death in 1838 his brothers Martim Francisco and Antonio Carlos continued their political careers. The political situation was a mess in Brazil in April 1840. The "Andrada" brothers, and other liberal leaders, organized a secret club to promote the emancipation of Dom Pedro II.
The Andradas began to organize public demonstrations in support of the emancipation of Dom Pedro II, and engaged in debate using the press to get further public support.
Disregarding the pleas from the leader of the government for postponement, a joint session of Congress invested Dom Pedro with imperial authority on July 23, 1840. The young Prince was fourteen years old. He took the oath to uphold the Constitution, and from then on, he was Emperor Pedro II.
Unlike his father, Dom Pedro II had been born, and educated in Brazil. His tutors, starting with Jose Bonifacio, exposed him to heavy doses of Enlightenment thought. During his later years in power some political commentators referred to Dom Pedro II's government as the best republican government in the Americas.
When the Emperor Dom Pedro II formed his first cabinet of ministers in 1840, he rewarded the Andrada brothers by appointing Antonio Carlos as the Prime Minister, and Martim Francisco as the Finance Minister.
Martim Francisco died on February 23, 1844. He was almost sixty-nine years old at the time of his death.
Antonio Carlos died a year later in 1845. He was almost seventy-two years old. He had just been elected Senator to represent the State of Pernambuco at the time of his death.
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