Economic Rise of Brazil

Brief History of Brazil

Brazil was discovered in 1500 by Portuguese explorers and was subsequently run under Portuguese rule. For the purpose of this assignment Brazil's economy development experience since the country gained independence from Portugal; which happened in 1822. Since then Brazil has overcome dictatorships, citizen unrest and political corruption to become the sixth largest economy in the world and one of the world's four emerging country's known as the BRIC's (CNN Money, 2013).

Independence 1822- 1870

Following Brazil's independence there was difficult times as there are for most newly independent nations. These difficult times steamed from the fact that their domestic economy was depressed. The only sector of the country's economy was the maintenance of the new country. All the resources that the country had including land, animals and of course, because it was taken place before the abolishment of slavery, slaves (Photius, 2004). Before the independence of Brazil a poor domestic economy would have been offset by a ‘booming' export economy. However due to the fact the Brazil was a new country they had to win the recognition of the countries to gain their trade (Soul Brasileiro, 2014). In order to counteract this Brazil signed a treaty to recognise Brazil as an independent state. This treaty opened a trade link between Britain and the new independent state. Portugal also benefitted from the treaty as because Brazil agree to pay off the loans that the Portuguese government had received from Britain in order to push through the treaty (Soul Brasileiro, 2014).

Coffee 1870-1930

Following this treaty with being signed with Britain; Brazil's exports soared dramatically however none of these exports came to the success of coffee. Coffee had been grown in Brazil since the early eighteenth century; it had been domestically consumed, with a small amount reaching the coffee houses of Europe (Baer, 2001). However when North American and European countries embarked on their industrial revolutions the living conditions for their peoples increased the demand for coffee increased and the rapid growth can be seen in the table below:

Year Coffee Exports (1000 bags, 60 kg each)

1821-30 3,178

1831-40 10,430

1841-50 18,367

1851-60 27,339

1861-70 29,103

1871-80 32,509

1881-90 51,631

At the beginning of the coffee surge the majority of Brazil's coffee production took place in the Northern and Western areas of Rio de Janeiro, mainly the Paraíba Valley using basic techniques that