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The rationale of sharecropping: immigrant bonded laborers and the transition from slavery in Brazil (1830-1890)

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  • Bruno Gabriel Witzel de Souza

    (University of Goettingen / Germany)

Abstract

This paper studies the history of bonded labor in the plantations of São Paulo. Brazilian farmers proposed various contracts to bond immigrant households with a credit-labor interlinkage. The aim is to discuss why different laborrental arrangements were adopted. In particular, vis-à-vis the alternatives of fixed rents and wage systems, it asks why sharecropping contracts were offered to European laborers during the transition from slavery in Brazil. Building on some new historical evidence and a formal model, the paper makes two propositions about the rationale of bonded labor and sharecropping. First, the credit dimension was more important to landowners than specific labor-rental regimes. The credit supplied by landowners allowed for the tying of immigrants via indebtedness. This mechanism guaranteed a secure and stable supply of labor to local agricultural elites and permitted the immigration of poor and credit-constrained Europeans. This prepared the insertion of Brazil into the global circuit of the Age of Mass Migration without promoting institutional reforms to attract non-bonded immigrants. Second, sharecropping became the most prevalent contract in the first phase of the transition from slavery not because of an economically rational decision taken by landowners, but more as an emulation of other historical and international experiences with this labor-rental arrangement.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno Gabriel Witzel de Souza, 2019. "The rationale of sharecropping: immigrant bonded laborers and the transition from slavery in Brazil (1830-1890)," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 239, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:got:iaidps:239
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