Slavery and the Demographic and Economic History of Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1720–1888. By Laird W. Bergad. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. 298. $54.95.

Abstract

Forty years after it was first published, Celso Furtado's seminal The Economic Growth of Brazil (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965), is still one of the most widely used books in undergraduate, and even graduate courses, on Brazilian economic history. Although short, Furtado's book set forth many hypotheses that generated several memorable academic debates amongst specialists in Brazilian history. Even when Furtado was wrong on a given topic, his analysis often stimulated discussions that pushed forward the frontiers of knowledge. Such is the case with the scholarly literature arising in the 1970s and 1980s around the development of the region of Minas Gerais after the abrupt end of the mining boom in 1760. Furtado's view, that the end of mining activity had brought a generalized economic decadence to the region, was widely accepted. It was believed that this collapse had caused a reversion to subsistence activities, together with dispersal of the population and underutilization of slaves, leading eventually to their emigration to other regions where coffee was becoming the center of the economy.