Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T20:39:18.036Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Property Rights, Family, and Business Partnership in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Brazil: The Case of the St. John d'el Rey Mining Company, 1834–1960

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Abstract

This article uses a case study to illustrate the dynamics of firm structure and property rights in Brazil during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The St. John d´el Rey Mining Company was a British mining company in Brazil. Its experiences demonstrate that, property rights were not under-specified; they were over-specified and varying provisions for rights were mutually inconsistent. Precise laws protected capital investment to such an extent that dissolving partnerships became problematic. At the same time, inheritance laws mandated partible division of personal estates among heirs. The mining company's history demonstrates the opportunities for posthumously emerged heirs, essentially, to claim partnership rights.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2007. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibliography of Works Cited Books

Books

Alston, , Lee, J., Libecap, Gary D., and Mueller, Bernardo. Titles, Conflict, and Land Use: The Development of Property Rights and Land Reform on the Brazilian Amazon Frontier. Ann Arbor, Mich., 1999.Google Scholar
Calógeras, , Pandiá, Joao. As minas do Brasil e sua legislaçâio: Geologica economica do Brasil. 3 vols. Sao Paulo, 1938.Google Scholar
Carsalade Villela, Bráulio, Nova Lima: Formação histórica. Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil, 1998.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. Cambridge, Mass., 1990.Google Scholar
Dean, Warren. The Industrialization of São Paulo, 1880–1945. Austin, Tex., 1969.Google Scholar
Dean, Warren. Rio Claro: A Brazilian Plantation System, 1820–1920. Stanford, Calif., 1976.Google Scholar
Dean, Warren. With Broadax and Firebrand: The Destruction of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Berkeley, Calif., 1995.Google Scholar
Eakin, Marshall C., British Enterprise in Brazil: The St. John d’el Rey Mining Company and the Morro Velho Gold Mine, 1830–1960. Durham, N.C., 1989.Google Scholar
Eakin, Marshall C., Tropical Capitalism: The Industrialization of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. New York Houndmills, U.K., 2001.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, Peter L. The Sugar Industry in Pernambuco: Modernization without Change, 1840–1910. Berkeley, Calif., 1974.Google Scholar
Frank, Zephyr L. Dutra’s World: Wealth and Family in Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro. Albuquerque, N. Mex., 2004.Google Scholar
Grinberg, Keila. O fiador dos brasileiros: Cidadania, excrãvidao e direito civil no tempo de Antonio Pereira Rebouças. Rio de Janeiro, 2002.Google Scholar
Hall, Linda B. Oil, Banks, and Politics the United States and Postrevolutionary Mexico, 1917–1924. Austin, Tex., 1995.Google Scholar
Lauderdale Graham, Sandra. Caetana Says No: Women’s Stories from a Brazilian Slave Society. Cambridge, U.K., 2002.Google Scholar
Leff, Nathaniel H. Underdevelopment and Development in Brazil. 2 vols. London, 1982.Google Scholar
Levy, Maria Barbára. História da Bolsa de Valores do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, 1977.Google Scholar
Lewin, Linda. Surprise Heirs. 2 vols. Stanford, Calif., 2003.Google Scholar
Libby, Douglas Cole. Trabalho escravo e capital estrangeiro no Brasil: O caso de Morro Velho. Vol. 1. Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1984.Google Scholar
Libby, Douglas Cole. Transformação e trabalho em uma economia escravista: Minas Gerais no século XIX. São Paulo, 1988.Google Scholar
Libecap, Gary D. The Evolution of Private Mineral Rights Nevada’s Comstock Lode. New York, 1978.Google Scholar
Metcalf, Alida C. Family and Frontier in Colonial Brazil: Santana de Parnaiba, 1580–1822. Berkeley, Calif., 1992.Google Scholar
Motta, Márcia Maria Menendes. Nas fronteiras do poder: Conflitos de terras e direito agrário no Brasil de meados do Seculo XIX. Rio de Janeiro, 1998.Google Scholar
Moura, Margarida Maria. Os herdeiros da terra: Parentesco e herancça numa area rural. São Paulo, 1978.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C., and Thomas, Robert P. The Rise ofthe Western World: A New Economic History. Cambridge, U.K., 1973.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Stuart B. Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia 1550–1835. Cambridge, U.K., 1985.Google Scholar
Silva, Ligia Maria Osório. Terras devolutas e latifundio: Efeitos da lei de 1850. Campinas, São Paulo, 1996.Google Scholar
Simonsen, Roberto Cochrane. Historia economica do Brasil, 1500–1820. 4th ed. São Paulo, 1962.Google Scholar
Stein, Stanley J. Vassouras, A Brazilian Coffee County, 1850–1900. Cambridge, Mass., 1957.Google Scholar
Triner, Gail D. Banking and Economic Development: Brazil, 1889–1930. New York, 2000.Google Scholar
Viotti da Costa, Emília. The Brazilian Empire Myths and Histories. Chicago, 1985.Google Scholar
Wilkins, Mira., and Schröter, Harm G. The Free-Standing Company in the World Economy, 1830–1996. Oxford, U.K., 1998.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver E. The Economic Institutions of Capitalism Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting. New York, 1985.Google Scholar

Articles and Essays

Alchian, Armen A., and Demsetz, Harold. “The Property Rights Paradigm.” Journal of Economic History 33 (March 1973): 1627.Google Scholar
Barbosa, Alfredo Ruy. “Breve panorama da legislação minerária.“ Revista de Direito Administrativo 197 (July/Sept. 1994): 6473.Google Scholar
Carr, Jack L., and Frank Mathewson, G.;Unlimited Liability as a Barrier to Entry.” Journal of Political Economy 96 (Aug. 1988): 766–84.Google Scholar
Carvalho, José Murilo de. “Modernização frustrada: A política de terras no Império.” Revista Brasileira de História 1 (March 1981): 3957.Google Scholar
Coase, R.H.The Nature of the Firm.” Economica 4 (Nov. 1937): 386405.Google Scholar
Dean, Warren. “Latifundia and Land Policy in Nineteenth-Century Brazil.” Hispanic American Historical Review 51 (Nov. 1971): 606–25.Google Scholar
Demsetz, Harold. “Toward a Theory of Property Rights.” American Economic Review 56 (May 1967): 347–59.Google Scholar
Haber, Stephen. “The Political Economy of Financial Market Regulation and Industrial Productivity in Brazil, 1866–1934.” In Political Institutions and Economic Growth in Latin America: Essays in Policy, History and Political Economy, ed. Haber, Stephen. Stanford Calif., 2000, pp. 69121.Google Scholar
Hanley, Anne Gerard. “ Business Finance and the São Paulo Bolsa, 1886–1917 .” In Latin America and the World Economy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, eds. Coatsworth, John H. and Taylor, Alan M. Cambridge, Mass., 1998, pp. 115–38.Google Scholar
Leff, Nathaniel H.Capital Markets in the Less Developed Countries: The Group Principle.” In Money and Finance in Economic Growth and Development, ed. McKinnon, Ronald I.. New York, 1976, pp. 97122.Google Scholar
Leff, Nathaniel H.Industrial Organization and Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: The Economic Groups.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 26 (July 1978): 661–75.Google Scholar
Libecap, Gary D. “Economic Variables and the Development of the Law: The Case of Western Mineral Rights.” Journal of Economic History 38 (2): 1978, 338–62.Google Scholar
Libecap, Gary D. “The Political Allocation of Mineral Rights: A Reevaluation of Teapot Dome.” Journal of Economic History 44 (June 1984): 381–91.Google Scholar
Libecap, Gary D. “Property Rights in Economic History: Implications for Research.” Explorations in Economic History 23 (July 1986): 227–52.Google Scholar
Nazzari, Muriel. “Widows as Obstacles to Business: British Objections to Brazilian Marriage and Inheritance Laws.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 37 (Oct. 1995): 781802.Google Scholar
Russell-Wood, A.J.R.Technology and Society: The Impact of Gold Mining on the Institution of Slavery in Portuguese America.” Journal of Economic History 37 (March 1977): 5983.Google Scholar

Unpublished Source and Oral History

Arruda, Gerald, interview with author, 10 June 2004.Google Scholar
Musacchio, Aldo. “Building Credible Commitments: Bankruptcy Lawand the Transition to a Republican Government in Brazil 1880–1930.” Paper presented at the American Historical Association Meeting, Washington D.C., Jan. 2004.Google Scholar

Archival Sources

The St. John d’el Rey Company Ltd. Archives at Morro Velho, Nova Lima, Brazil. Anon (Wharrier?, J.H.). “Historical Notes,” MV Imobilario, 13.10.66. 1960 [?]. Cited as “MV Historical Notes”.Google Scholar
Official letters from St. John d’el Rey Board of Directors to Superintendent. Casa de Memoria. Cited as MV Board Letters (with date).Google Scholar
Registro de Documentos, Morro Velho Imobiliaírio. Cited as MV Registro (with holdings and document numbers).Google Scholar
Morro Velho Imobiliário, (Real Estate Office Files). Cited as MV Imobiliário (with file numbers).Google Scholar
St. John d’el Rey Mining Co. Archives held at Nettie Lee Benson Library, University of Texas, Austin, Texas.Google Scholar
St. John d’el Rey Mining Co., Ltd. Annual Report to Shareholder. London. 1830–1960. Cited as SJdR Annual Report.Google Scholar