page_title: Empire of Brazil
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Empire of Brazil / Economy / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: General Carneiro station which belonged to Minas and Rio railway. Minas Gerais province, Brazil, c.1884.
context_page_description: The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pedro I and his son Dom Pedro II. A colony of the Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil became the seat of the Portuguese colonial Empire in 1808, when the Portuguese Prince regent, later King Dom João VI, fled from Napoleon's invasion of Portugal and established himself and his government in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. João VI later returned to Portugal, leaving his eldest son and heir, Pedro, to rule the Kingdom of Brazil as regent. On 7 September 1822, Pedro declared the independence of Brazil and, after waging a successful war against his father's kingdom, was acclaimed on 12 October as Pedro I, the first Emperor of Brazil. The new country was huge, sparsely populated and ethnically diverse.
context_section_description: Brazil's international trade reached a total value of Rs 79.000:000$000 between 1834 and 1839. This continued to increase every year until it reached Rs 472.000:000$000 between 1886 and 1887: an annual growth rate of 3.88% since 1839. The absolute value of exports from the Empire in 1850 was the highest in Latin America and triple that of Argentina which was in fourth place. Brazil would keep its high standing in exports and general economic growth until the end of the monarchy. Brazilian economic expansion, especially after 1850, compared well with that of the United States and European nations. The national tax revenue amounted to Rs 11.795:000$000 in 1831 and rose to Rs 160.840:000$000 in 1889. By 1858, national tax revenues ranked as the eighth-largest in the world. Imperial Brazil was, despite its progress, a country where wealth was very unequally distributed. However, for purposes of comparison, according to historian Steven C. Topik, in the United States, "by 1890, 80 percent of the population lived on the margin of subsistence, while 20 percent controlled almost all wealth."
  As new technologies appeared, and with increases in internal productivity, exports increased considerably. This made it possible to reach equilibrium in the balance of trade. During the 1820s sugar constituted about 30% of total exports while cotton constituted 21%, coffee 18% and leather and skins 14%. Twenty years later coffee would reach 42%, sugar 27%, leather and skins 9%, and cotton 8% of the total exports. This did not mean a reduction in the production of any of these items and, in fact, the opposite occurred. Growth occurred in all sectors, some more than others. In the period between 1820 and 1840, Fausto says "Brazilian exports had doubled in volume and had tripled in nominal value" while the valuation denominated in Pounds sterling increased by over 40%. Brazil was not the only country where agriculture played an important role on exports. Around 1890, in the United States, by then the richest nation in the Americas, agricultural goods represented 80% of all its exports.
  In the 1820s, Brazil exported 11,000 tons of cacao and by 1880 this had increased to 73,500 tons. Between 1821 and 1825, 41,174 tons of sugar were exported, rising to 238,074 tons between 1881 and 1885. Until 1850, rubber production was insignificant, but between 1881 and 1890, it had reached third place among Brazilian exports. This was about 81 tons between 1827 and 1830 reaching 1,632 tons in 1852. By 1900 the country was exporting 24,301,452 tons of rubber. Brazil also exported around 3,377,000 tons of coffee between 1821 and 1860 while between 1861 and 1889 this reached 6,804,000 tons. Technological innovations also contributed to the growth of exports, in particular the adoption of steam navigation and railroads allowed for faster and more convenient cargo transportation.
caption: A railroad station in Minas Gerais province (Brazilian southeast), c. 1884
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