Minas Gerais Railroads in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The Zona da Mata Mineira, a rich coffee-exporting region in a poor province, contained nearly sixty percent of Minas's total railroad grid of 1006 kilometers in 1884. This article, which examines the Mata railroad boom, focuses on the intra-and inter-regional dynamics that explain the rise and fall of the Leopoldina, Minas's most important private railroad. It sheds light on railroad finance, the relationship between coffee and rails and the politics of rails in Minas and Brazilin the late nineteenth century.