Business Interest Groups in Nineteenth-Century Brazil

The political will of the business elite of nineteenth-century Brazil was expressed most clearly and forcefully through its organized interest groups (also known as pressure groups). Traditional advisory and regulatory prerogatives, lack of competing interest groups, and unexcelled access to government gave Brazilian business interest groups in the nineteenth century power unequaled by such organizations today. They affected development mainly by influencing the scope and direction of government support. This book examines their role in development and, through them, the business elite that they represented. Business interest groups assumed much responsibility for the welfare of Brazilian agriculture. They tried to upgrade the quality of agricultural exports and helped market them, fought export taxation, and attempted to arrange cheap, ready rural credit. Several groups also tried to ensure agriculture's labor supply by defending slavery. Through their prerogative of advising on tariffs and through participation in the debate over economic liberalism, business interest groups strongly affected the pace of industrialization. By introducing new systems of communications, they helped determine Brazil's communications infrastructure. They also aided the young Brazilian state in economic and urban integration. Lastly, the most important of the business interest groups, the commercial associations, also may be seen as institutions through which ties of dependency to better developed nations overseas were maintained.