The Taubaté Agreement and the Fluminense Agricultural Economy

Abstract

This essay analyzes the politics of the first valorization of coffee, and this policy's application and its effects on a declining area of Brazilian coffee production, the State of Rio de Janeiro. Departing from the usual conclusions put forth on this topic, which usually deal with the most dynamic zone of coffee production, that is, São Paulo, especially western São Paulo, my point here is that the effects of valorization were different in regions where different conditions prevailed. In the Fluminense case, valorization was not even sufficient to preseve continuing production; this explains the expansion and diversification of the agricultural economy of the state, a process which paralleled the coffee crisis. This diversification accelerated in the period Just following the Convention of Taubaté.