This brief monograph is one of a series planned for publication by the Institute of Social Sciences at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, under a special arrangement with the Ministry of Education and Culture. Those interested in the workings of the economic system in Latin America generally and in Brazil more particularly will welcome this initiative and wish its sponsors well. May it reach the goal expressed by Evaristo de Moraes Filho, president of the Institute, that of promoting the university as “an instrument of mobilization for less indolent and more ideal social integration.”
The student of Brazilian affairs since the end of the last century is hampered by the lack of sound economic studies. This is particularly true of the vital contribution made by the so-called grupos econômico’s such as Matarazzo, Simonsen, and others to the industrial development of São Paulo and Brazil as a whole. Excellent broad-gauged studies such as those carried out by Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Octávio Ianni have provided the background for such studies as the monograph under review.
The objective of this study is to “discuss questions relating to the economic group founded and led by Count Francisco Matarazzo, while discussing conditions for industrialization in São Paulo and in Brazil.” It is a tall order, one which such a brief monograph could not hope to fill. Indeed it bears more resemblance to a good term paper than to an original piece of research based upon primary materials. The bibliography is limited to secondary sources, although it includes much of the best literature dealing with economic development and socio-cultural change.
The author is at pains to demolish the myth of the Count as the representative of a rags-to-riches transition in the style of Horatio Alger. He establishes well the fact that Matarazzo and his relatives possessed some financial resources, as well as considerable business experience in the Old World, and that these assets were indispensable to the Count’s later success. Shrewd judgment and business acumen at the right time undoubtedly played their role also. Souza Martins points out that the Count initially rejected the myth of his success, but later accepted it and made it part of his “mystique” for economic and social reasons.
The section of the study which deals with the relations between the Matarazzo group and labor is perhaps the least satisfactory. Here we are asked to accept on faith the notion that paternalism managed to pull the teeth of labor protest, even during the São Paulo general strike of 1917. More crucial, perhaps, was the role of the São Paulo police garrison.
The conclusion of this study is an interesting and provocative one: “The clan enterprise, the captain-of-industry, and company paternalism are not simply a cultural legacy signaling the emergence of Brazilian industry, but rather the indispensable product of the economy of a country which needed to industrialize itself prior to the sharp break between internal economic and social relations founded along colonial lines.” This is a fascinating thesis indeed, but it is not satisfactorily defended in the pages of this limited monograph. We shall have to await a more penetrating study based upon archival research. Who better than Sr. Souza Martíns to undertake it?
