Estrangeiras e nacionais: as maiores casas exportadoras de café em Santos (1897-1930)

Abstract

No período 1897-1930, as lavouras do estado de São Paulo responderam por aproximadamente dois terços das sacas de café exportadas pelo Brasil, grãos que eram negociadas no porto de Santos. Mas, quais eram as firmas responsáveis por exportar o café brasileiro no porto paulista? A historiografia convencionou apontar o domínio de empresas estrangeiras sobre a comercialização do café no período citado. Embasado nos arquivos da Associação Comercial de Santos e nas edições do Wileman’s Brazilian Review, o artigo demonstra que as casas inglesas e alemãs lideraram as exportações em Santos até 1913, mas, com o início da I Guerra Mundial em 1914 e na década de 1920, houve casas nacionais/brasileiras que lideraram a exportação e passaram rivalizar com firmas estrangeiras, sendo que estas firmas passaram a ser as estadunidenses.

In the period 1897-1930, crops in the state of São Paulo accounted for approximately two thirds of the coffee bags exported by Brazil, beans that were traded in the port of Santos. But which were the companies responsible for exporting Brazilian coffee in the port of São Paulo? The historiography has agreed to point out the dominance of foreign companies over the commercialization of coffee in the aforementioned period. Based on the archives of Associação Comercial de Santos and editions of Wileman’s Brazilian Review, the article demonstrates that English and German houses led exports in Santos until 1913 but, with the beginning of the World War I in 1914 and in the 1920s, there were national/Brazilian houses that led exports and began to compete with foreign firms, and these firms became US firms.