Businesses,associations,and regions in the Brazilian sugar industry,1920-1990.
详细信息
文摘
The dissertation examines how sugar industries in Northeastern and Southern Brazil diverged,despite the fact that they operated in the same country,at the same time,under the same national regulatory agency. This evolution of regional differences is striking,given that at the dawn of the twentieth century the Northeastern sugar industry produced the vast majority of Brazils sugar,while the South produced roughly one fifth as much. Today,the Southern sugar industry located in and around Sao Paulo state leads the world in exports of cane sugar and ethanol,while producing most of the sugar consumed in Brazil. The dissertation shows that regional variations in sugar production and efficiency existed prior to the Institute of Sugar and Alcohols Instituto do Acucar e do Alcool,IAA) founding in 1933,but these differences crystallized as sugar industry members relationships with the institute progressed. From 1933 to 1990,the IAA restricted production of sugar in Brazil in an attempt to manipulate its price and stabilize the Northeastern sugar industry. The IAA also held a monopoly on the ethanol sector and sugar exports. I argue that regional conditions and IAA policies pushed Northeastern sugar producers to take loans and subsidies from the IAA in order to support their uncompetitive sugar mills. Northeastern producers sought rents because they had little chance of producing sugar at a lower cost than their competitors in Southern Brazil. At the same time,businessmen in Sao Paulo took advantage of the IAAs efforts to stabilize prices and boost ethanol production,in order to create a modern,efficient sugar sector. Sao Paulo sugar producers looked to corner more of the domestic market,by pushing the IAA to increase their production quotas after 1946. They also lowered their costs of production by partnering with state agricultural institutions and investing in new cane varieties,fertilizers,agricultural machinery,and milling equipment. The dissertation contributes to debates about whether agro-industrial elites had the ability to influence state policy. It shows that groups of regional sugar producers obtained some of their desired policies and funding from the state. The dissertation also highlights the role of associational activity among businessmen. Regional cooperatives and groups were central to the divergence of sugar sectors as they aided producers pursuit of rents in the Northeast and efficiency in Sao Paulo. In particular,the dissertation focuses on Copersucar,a cooperative in Sao Paulo that wielded a great deal of economic and political power. Finally,it adds to our understanding of the Vargas era in Brazil,as it examines how policies implemented during the 1930s changed the sugar industry throughout the twentieth century.