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Chambers of Commerce and Business Elites in Great Britain and Brazil in the Nineteenth Century: Some Comparisons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

Eugene Ridings
Eugene Ridings
Affiliation:
EUGENE RIDINGS is professor emeritus of history, Winona State University.
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Extract

Chambers of commerce were the main pressure groups serving as intermediaries between the business elite and the government in Great Britain and Brazil in the nineteenth century. The most important problem they faced in both nations was promoting a legal and institutional framework that would facilitate economic expansion. In both nations, the critical factors affecting this task were the need of the state for the expert advice that business pressure groups could offer, the traditional relationship between business and government, and especially the attitude of a historically dominant landed elite.

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Articles
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Business History Review , Volume 75 , Issue 4 , Winter 2001 , pp. 739 - 773
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Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2001

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References

1 As indicated by the names of those who organized and funded Brazil's first two commercial associations. Jornal do Comércio (Rio de Janeiro), 2 Sept. 1834, 2; Associaçāo Comercial do Rio de Janeiro, “Regulamento para a Praçado Comércio do Rio de Janeiro,” in Fazenda, José Vieira, Notas Histôricas sòbre a Praça do Cornércio e a Associaçāo Comercial do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, 1915), 22Google Scholar; Pinto, Estevāo, A Associaçāo Comercial de Pernambuco (Recife, 1940), 7.Google Scholar

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7 The efforts of industrial pressure groups, combined with problems in Brazil's traditional agricultural export economy, led to growing support for industrialization and to a corresponding weakening ot the influence of commercial associations. Ridings, Eugene W., “Business Associationalism, the Legitimation of Enterprise, and the Emergence of a Business Elite in Nineteenth-Century Brazil,” Business History Review 63 (Winter 1989): 757–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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11 Chamber of Commerce Journal (London) 19, no. 4 (1900): 96. The Liverpool Chamber was organized with the participation of several long-existent local trade associations. Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, First Animal Report of the Council, Presented to the Chamber at the General Meeting, Held February 3, 1851 (Liverpool, 1851).

12 See Powell, L. H., A Hundred Yean On: The History of the Liverpool Steam Ship Owners' Association, 1858–1958 (Liverpool, 1958).Google Scholar For the Railway Companies' Association and other railway groups, see Bagwell, Philip S., “The Railway Interest: Its Organization and Influence, 1839–1914,” The Journal of Transport History 7 (1965): 65–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Alderman, Railway Interest. Another national shipowners' association, the Shipping Federation (1890),was created primarily to combat trade-union militancy. Powell, L. H., The Shipping Federation: A History of the First Sixty Years, 1890–1950 (London, 1950).Google Scholar The Liverpool Steam Ship Owners' Association affiliated with the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce in 1889. Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, Annual Report, 1890, 3.

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16 Love, Joseph L., “Political Participation in Brazil, 1881–1969,” Luso-Brazilian Review 7 (Dec. 1970): 7.Google Scholar However, prior to 1881, roughly one-half of the nation's free males were registered as indirect voters. Graham, Richard, Patronage and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Brazil (Stanford, Calif., 1990), 108–9.Google Scholar

17 Ridings, Eugene, “Business, Nationality, and Dependency in Late Nineteenth Century Brazil,” Journal of Latin American Studies 14 (May 1982): 55–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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19 For a list of bills before Parliament sponsored by the Association of British Chambers of Commerce in 1882, for example, see Minutes, meeting of the Executive Council, 21Apr. 1882, Association of British Chambers of Commerce, Minutes of the Executive Council (hereafter cited as ABCC/MEC), vol. 3: 1876–1883, Guildhall Library (hereafter cited as GL), London, Ms. 14, 476, unpaginated.

20 Commercial Association of Pará; to Comptroller (Procurador Fiscal) of Provincial Treasury, Belém, 30 Sept., 1870, Relatório da Associaçãdo Comercial do Pará de 1871 (Belém, 1871), Anexos, 16–17.

21 Prindle to Department of State, Salvador, 24 Nov. 1881. National Archives/Department of State T-331, vol. 4, unpaginated.

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24 See note 17, above. Most commercial associations, however, took care that their presidents were Brazilian.

25 Ridings, “Business Associationalism,” 786–96.

26 For the distinction between direct and indirect lobbying, see Holtzman, Abraham, Interest Groups and Lobbying (New York, 1966), 76, 100–3Google Scholar. Modern pressure groups tend to place a much greater emphasis on indirect lobbying. Key, V. O., Politics, Parties, and Pressure Groups, 4th ed. (New York, 1958), 103Google Scholar; Truman, David, The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion (New York, 1962), 213–14.Google Scholar

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30 Recognition came by way of a decree awarding official approval to the organization's statutes. Curiously, the relationship was based more on custom than law. Not until well into the twentieth century did the commercial associations receive formal legal status as consultative organs to government. “A Mentalidade Econômica e as Associaçãoes Comerciais,” Revista do Dereito Comercial 40 (1940); 338; Joāo da Costa e Suva Sobrinho, Santos Noutros Tempos (Sáo Paulo, 1953), 251.Google Scholar

31 Minutes, meeting of 8 May 1896, ABCC, MEC, vol 5: 1895–1907, GL, Ms. 14, 476. Of course, chambers of commerce commonly testified previously, but always at the invitation of the committee. In 1884, chambers of commerce obtained the official right to testify before private parliamentary committees on railway bills. Association of British Chambers of Commerce, Annual Report, 1885, 12–13.

32 This relationship was formalized by the awarding of “Honorary Membership” in the Association. Minutes, special general meeting of 10 May 1866, ABCC, MEC, vol. 1: 1860–1869, GL, Ms. 14, 476. For the names of these MPs, see Association of British Chambers of Commerce, Annual Reports, 1867–1900

33 For example, Jornal do Comércio, 2 Sept. 1834, 2; Associação Comercial do Rio de Janeiro, Relatório de 1875, 5.

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38 Henderson, W. O., “The Cotton Supply Association, 1857–72,” Empire Cotton Growing Review 9 (1932): 132–5.Google Scholar For a summary of Manchester Chamberof Commerce efforts to in crease and improve cotton supply up to 1856, see The Thirty-Fifth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Chamber.… 1856 (Manchester, 1856), 13–46.

39 For example, Bradford Chamber of Commerce, Third Annual Report of the Council, Presented to the Chamber.… 1854 (Bradford, 1854)Google Scholar, 15–16; and Annual Report, 1861, 19, 28–9.

40 Ridings, Business Interest Groups, 101–5.

41 Hametty, Imperialism and Free Trade, 104.

42 Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, Annual Report, 1885, 75–8.

43 Manchester Guardian, 10 Dec. 1896, 3; 16 Dec. 1896, 7; and 13 Oct. 1898, 10. The chambers also tried unsuccessfully to force similar action for the colony of Lagos.

44 Consumption by British mills in 1864 was only 51 percent that of 1860, but the inferiority of the cotton required that 60 to 70 percent of the workforce be retained. Manchester Guardian, 31 Jan. 1865, 6.

45 For the reasons for this failure see Harnetty, Lancashire and India, 60–100.

46 Brazil, Institute Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, Anuário Estatístico, 1939–40, 1375. For Cuban competition, see Denslow, David, “Sugar Production in Northeastern Brazil and Cuba, 1858–1908” (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1974).Google Scholar Cotton exportation also fell, but mainly because raw cotton was increasingly absorbed by Brazilian textile manufactures.

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59 Ridings, Business Interest Groups, 306.

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74 In 1882 in São Paulo, railway freight was estimated to constitute 25 percent of the average sale price of coffee, and in Pernambuco in the 1880s, between 20 and 50 percent of the value of sugar, depending on variety, price, and exchange rate. These were periods of low price for both commodities. Wright to Department of State, Santos, 25 March 1882, United States Reports from Consuls (hereafter cited as USRC), 6, no. 20 (June 1882): 242; Milet, Henrique Augusto, A Lavoura de Cana de Açucar (Recife, 1881), 33Google Scholar; Associação Comercial de Pernambuco, Relatório de 1887, 36.

75 Parris, Henry, Government and the Railways in Nineteenth-Century Britain (London, 1965), 222Google Scholar; Bagwell, “Railway Interest,” 78.

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78 Commercial Association of Rio de Janeiro, Relatório de 1879, 30, Relatório de 1880, 7, and Relatório de 1881, 7.

79 Also stimulated bv exchange depreciation, the number of factories increased from 636 in 1889 to 1,088 in 1895. Baer, Werner, Industrialization and Economic Development in Brazil (Homewood, Ill., 1965), 13.Google Scholar

80 Robb, White-Collar Crime, 94.

81 Association of British Chambers of Commerce, Annual Report, 1894, 70. For Chamberlain's views, see Manchester Guardian, 12 July 1888, 6. On the question, see also Robb, White-Collar Crime, 181–9.

82 Association of British Chambers of Commerce, Autumn Meeting, 1900, 57.

83 Associação Comercial de Pernambuco, Relatório de 1859, 6; Barros, Eudes, Associação Comercial no Império e na República, 2d ed. rev. (Rio de Janeiro, 1975), 88–9Google Scholar; Associação Comercial da Bahia, Relatório da Associação Comercial da Bahia de 1873 (Salvador, 1873), 4.Google Scholar

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88 Emilia Viotti da Costa, “Brazil: The Age of Reform, 1870–1889,” in The Cambridge Historty of Latin America, vol. 5: c. 1870–1930, ed. Bethell, Leslie (Cambridge, 1986), 742Google Scholar; Murilo de Carvalho, A Construçāo da Ordem, 126–9.

89 Representação Dirigida pela Comissão da Lavoura e Comércio a sua Alteza Imperial Regente, Salvador, 5 July 1888, Presidência da Província/Govêrno ao Assoeiação Comercial, 1846–89, Arquivo do Estadoda Bahia; Viveiros, Jerônimo de, História do Comércio do Maranhāo, 1612–1895 (São Luís, 1954), 2: 471.Google Scholar

90 Association of British Chambers of Commerce, Annual Report, 1891, 44. Backing by chamber representatives was unanimous. Of the two major English chambers of commerce not then affiliated with the Association, the Manchester Chamber of Commerce approved (Manchester Guardian, 25 April 1889, 4); the Liverpool chamber did not (Annual Report, 1890, 18).

91 Commercial Association of Porto Alegre, Relatório da Praça do Comércio de Porto Alegre dos Anos de 1872 e 1873 (Porto Alegre, 1873), 9.Google Scholar

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93 Thorner, Daniel, Investment in Empire: British Railway and Steam Shipping Enterprise in India, 1825–1849 (Philadelphia, 1950), 145–58Google Scholar; Low, D. A., Buganda in Modern History (Berkeley, Calif., 1971), 60–82Google Scholar; Galbraith, John S., Mackinnon and East Africa 1878–95: A Study in the ‘New Imperialism’ (Cambridge, 1972), 214–15.Google Scholar

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95 Minutes, meeting of 21 Feb. 1867, ABCC, MEC, vol. 1; 1860–69, GL, Ms. 14,476; Minutes, meeting of 6 Feb. 1867, LeCC Minute Book, 1851–67, BLLU, MS [Deposit] 1951/1–1, 645; Association of British Chambers of Commerce, Annual Report, 1888, 56, 94; Leeds Chamber of Commerce, Annual Report, 1900, 16–17. For nationalization of telegraphs, see fn. 50. For nationalization of the telephone system, see Hazlewood, Arthur, “The Origin of the State Telephone System in Britain,” Oxford Economic Papers 5 (1953): 13–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Forman-Peck, James and Millward, Robert, Public and Private Ownership of British Industry, 1820–1990 (New York, 1994), 97–104CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Perry, Victorian Post-Office, 169–200.

96 Associação Comercial de Pernambuco, Relatório de 1877, 63–4, and Relatório de 1884, 14–15; Associação Comercial do Maranhão, Relatório da Associação Comercial do Maranhāo de 1874 (São Luís, 1874), 7.Google Scholar

97 For India, see, for example, Association of British Chambers of Commerce, Annual Report, 1895, 8; Manchester Guardian, 1 Feb. 1884, 3; Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, Annual Report, 1884, 13. For Africa, see Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, Annual Report, 1893, 110, and Annual Report, 1895, 76–7; Leeds Chamber of Commerce, Annual Report, 1893, 12–14.

98 Kesner, Richard M., Economic Control and Colonial Development: Crown Colony Financial Management in the Age of Joseph Chamberlain (Westport, Conn., 1981), 106–7.Google Scholar See also Omosini, Olufemi, “Railway Projects and British Attitudes towards the Development of West Africa, 1872–1903,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 5 (June 1971): 491–507.Google Scholar

99 Significantly, these bodies were attached to local commercial associations and administered by a combination of association members and government employees. Brazil, leis, decretos, etc., Decretos do Govêrno Provisório da República dos Estados Unidos do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 1890), 313.

100 Abramovitz, Moses and Eliasberg, Vera F., The Growth of Public Employment in Great Britain (Princeton, N.J., 1957), 69.Google Scholar

101 Hill to Department of State, Santos, 20 Dec. 1897, USRC, 56, no. 210 (March 1898): 387.

102 As calculated in Great Britain, Foreign Office, Diplomatic and Consular Reports, no. 504 (1888): 57, and Cavalcanti, Amaro, Resenha Financeira do Ex-hnpério do Brasil em 1889 (Rio de Janeiro, 1890), 16.Google Scholar For 1898, see Duncan, Julian Smith, Public and Private Operation of Railways in Brazil (New York, 1932), 47.Google Scholar Because most guaranteed interest on capital was payable in gold, the depreciation of the mil-reis after 1889 greatly increased the burden.

103 For example. Association of British Chambers of Commerce, Annual Report, 1876, 116; Leeds Chamber of Commerce, Annual Report, 1878, 8–9; Wright, Birmingham Chamber, 253, 286, 297. Court-ordered debt imprisonment lingered, although decreasingly imposed, until 1970. Lester, Victorian Insolvency, 89–122; G. R. Rubin, “Law, Poverty and Imprisonment for Debt, 1869–1914,” in Law, Economy and Society, 1750–1914, 241–99.

104 The Rio de Janeiro News, 15 Sept. 1887, 4.

105 Ridings, Business Interest Groups, 161–6.

106 William D. Grampp, The Manchester School of Economics (Stanford, Calif., 1960), 127.

107 For example, Association of British Chambers of Commerce to President, Board of Trade, London, 23 April 1893, Annual Report, 1894, 41–2; Manchester Guardian, 21 July 1898, 4; “Government and Trade,” Chamber of Commerce Journal 5 (1886): 53–4.

108 The Association of British Chambers of Commerce nominated six of the original fourteen members of this committee. Association of British Chambers of Commerce, Annual Report, 1901, 31–2.

109 Association of British Chambers of Commerce, Annual Reports, 1885–1900. On landowner support for rating of machinery, see Matthews, A. H. H., Fifty Years of Agricultural Politics: Being the History of the Central Chamber of Agriculture, 1865–1915 (London, 1915), 100, 106, 111Google Scholar; Offer, Property and Politics, 201–5.

110 Sabine, B. E. V., A History of Income Tax (London, 1966), 140–5Google Scholar, and passim. Chamber of commerce demands for differentiation began in the 1850s. Wright, Birmingham Chamber, 132–3; Bristol Chamber of Commerce, Report and Resolutions of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce at the Half-Yearly Meeting… 1856 (Bristol, 1856), 21.Google Scholar

111 Mclvor, Organized Capital, 9, passim.

112 Alderman, Geoffrey, Pressure Groups and Government in Great Britain (New York, 1984), 14–15.Google Scholar

113 Font, Maurício A, Coffee, Contention, and Change in the Making of Modern Brazil (Oxford, 1990), 110–11Google Scholar; Schmitter. Interest Conflict and Political Change in Brazil, 147–8.

114 Schmitter, Interest Conflict, 195.