Brazil became an independent power in 1825 as an empire, with Dom Pedro I, son of the Portuguese king, on the throne. This monarch abdicated in 1831 in favor of the five-year-old heir apparent, who took the name of Dom Pedro II and reigned until 1889, when the empire gave way to a republic. The wars carried on by Brazil against her neighbors between 1851 and 1870 brought her provinces into touch with each other, as well as with the outside world.
In 1826 she pledged herself to Great Britain that, beginning with 1830, she would suppress the traffic in African negro slaves. This promise, however, she failed to keep, so the British parliament passed an act directing the seizure of all slave ships found in Brazilian waters. In every instance the slaves were liberated and the slave dealers brought before British tribunals. Complete suppression of the importation of slaves was the result. In 1871 children born of slave parents were declared free by law, and the movement in favor of emancipation continued until 1888, when slavery was entirely abolished without any indemnity to the slave owners.
The long reign of Dom Pedro II was marked by progress and prosperity. The emperor had the best interests of his people always at heart and concerned himself more with economic development than with political activities. Broad and liberal in his views, he made no attempt to prevent the spread of socialistic doctrines, which, about the year 1880, began to seriously affect the thought of the educated classes. The feeling of unrest and the desire for change engendered in this way culminated in the military conspiracy of 1889, and, as was only natural, the former slave owners, smarting under their losses, took sides against the emperor. The monarchy fell and was replaced by a republican form of government, which, despite several attempts to restore the empire, has endured to the present day.
In the sugar-growing regions of the north and center methods of cultivation do not show much improvement over the practice of early times. Cane is planted in holes about nine inches deep and five feet apart, no fertilizer being used. Some five weeks later the soil is turned up and after fifteen months’ growth the cane matures. In São Paulo, however, the planters work on more scientific lines, and ploughing, furrowing, tilling, fertilizing and weeding are done in a thorough manner. The crop depends upon rainfall entirely, and in a normal season ripens in from fourteen to sixteen months. As soon as the cane is cut the dry cane leaves are burned and ploughing begins. The plough passes close enough to the cane roots to tear them more or less, thus helping the new growth. Shortly after the new cane shoots appear, the ground is spaded up or ploughed, just as in the case of plant cane. Ratoons ripen in twelve or fourteen months, and as a rule four to six ratoon crops are grown before replanting is done.
The yield of cane varies with the rainfall and the richness of the soil, and ranges from 20 to 30 tons per acre for first ratoons, diminishing with succeeding crops. The sugar content frequently reaches 18 per cent.
Cane is grown either by colonos or by indentured laborers. In the colono system a tract of land from 9 to 36 acres in size and planted to cane is assigned by the estate to a group of colonos according to their number. The colonos care for the cane during its period of growth and harvest it when ripe. For this they receive the equivalent of $12.50 American gold per acre. Assuming that the yield per acre is 20 tons, the cost to the owner of the estate of cultivating and harvesting a ton of cane is 62½ cents. The colono is given pasture land for his cattle, fuel and house rent free.
The indentured laborers are allotted a certain amount of untilled ground, which they prepare, plant and cultivate. Seed cane, houses and pasturage are furnished gratis, and when the cane is ripe they harvest it. The amount paid the indentured laborers for cane raised in this way fluctuates according to the market value of sugar. For example, in São Paulo when the price of sugar is $4.41 gold per hundredweight, the laborer gets $2.23 per ton for his cane; when the price exceeds $4.41 and is less than $5.90 per hundredweight, he receives $2.55 per ton; when sugar sells between $5.90 and $8.60 per hundredweight, his share is $3.18 per ton; should the price go over $8.60, he gets $3.82 per ton.
The practice in Bahia is somewhat different. Taking as a basis a price of $2.939 gold per hundredweight for sugar, the cane brings $1.646 per long ton, and for every .147 cent (⅐ cent) per pound fluctuation in the price of sugar, the value of cane changes 9.88 cents per ton up or down as the case may be.[75]
In the small factories the methods of manufacture are very old-fashioned. The cane is crushed between rolls of hard wood, and the juice, after being strained to remove the suspended impurities, is boiled to grain in copper kettles. The magma is then run into large wooden moulds having cone-shaped, perforated bottoms. The holes in the bottom of these moulds are closed when the hot massecuite is dumped in, but as soon as it cools the plugs are taken out and the molasses allowed to drain off. A layer of very wet clay is then spread over the top of the sugar, and as the water slowly drains from the clay it passes through the sugar crystals, carrying the mother liquor with it. After this washing process has gone on for some time, the sugar is removed from the moulds, and the upper portion is found to be white, or nearly so, while underneath the color deepens into yellow and from that to brown as the bottom is reached. The sugars are carefully separated according to their color, then dried and packed in bags containing 60 kilograms or about 132 pounds each.