Small and Medium Ownership in the Large Coffee Crop

Abstract

Classical historiography has focused mainly on thelarge coffee planters in the Paraiba Valley. On analyzing hhew materials for the boom period of coffee planting in this region, the evidence points to the importance of small and medium planters in terms of their relative share of production and slaveholding. The main primary sources used in this article are the slave registers (registros de matrículas dos escravos) for Taubaté.