The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

For most of the nineteenth century the Brazilian economy grew roughly in line with population expansion. As a result, increases in per capita incomes were modest at best and, even then, were visible mostly in the second half of the century. As the empire came to a close and the republic was ushered in, several obstacles that had previously stood in the way of faster growth were gradually overcome and modern economic growth set in. This chapter discusses the main factors accounting for this story of no/low economic growth, followed by faster per capita income increases from the turn of the nineteenth century onward. Inevitably, in such a complex story as that of economic growth over such a long period, social, political, and demographic factors will be combined with those more strictly “economic” to provide a more comprehensive account of the historical developments under examination.