Financing of slave coffee plantations in the Parahyba Valley: Bananal and Piraí (1831-1850)

Abstract

The object of this research project is the financing of the coffee production in the Parahyba Valley between 1831 and 1850, that is, during the period of its organization, under the transatlantic slave trade. The main objective is to examine the relationship between creditors and debtors along the credit and trade network that formed the central core of the coffee economy. This flow of goods and loans involved slave traders, planters, exporting firms and factors. Analyzing the relations that the factors established with the other agents, the research aims to expand the possibilities of investigation on the theme that were little explored by historiography.