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Struggles over an ‘Old, Nasty, and Inconvenient Monopoly’: Municipal Slaughterhouses and the Meat Industry in Rio de Janeiro, 1880–1920s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2014

MARIA-APARECIDA LOPES
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Abstract

This paper examines the meat supply system in Rio de Janeiro from the late nineteenth century to the 1920s. For a period of time the city's monopoly over meat processing and retailing guaranteed a steady supply at predictable prices. However, at the turn of the century, ‘interlopers’, as municipal officials labelled those who attempted to introduce their product into Rio's market, began to question this century-old monopoly. Hence, for a relatively short period, Rio de Janeiro implemented a number of measures: curtailing the long-standing custom of clandestine slaughtering; establishing a centralised and somewhat regulated public abattoir system; and, finally, introducing meat-packing companies. This study considers these developments by undertaking a broader inquiry into how they affected per capita meat availability in Rio de Janeiro from the 1890s to the 1920s.

Spanish abstract

Este artículo examina al sistema de distribución de carne en Río de Janeiro desde los últimos años del siglo XIX hasta la década de 1920s. Durante este periodo, el monopolio del procesamiento y venta de carne en la ciudad garantizó un abasto constante a precios predecibles. Sin embargo, en el siglo XX los “intrusos”, tal como los funcionarios municipales denominaron quienes intentaron introducir su producto al mercado de Río, empezaron a cuestionar este monopolio centenario. Durante un periodo relativamente corto, Río de Janeiro implementó las siguientes medidas: frenó la vieja costumbre del sacrificio clandestino de ganado; estableció un sistema público centralizado y de alguna forma regulado de rastros; y, finalmente, introdujo compañías empacadoras de carne. Este estudio toma en consideración estos eventos al ubicarlos en un cuestionamiento mayor sobre cómo afectaron la disponibilidad de carne per cápita en Río de Janeiro entre las décadas de 1890 a 1920.

Portuguese abstract

Este artigo examina o sistema de abastecimento de carne no Rio de Janeiro entre o fim do século XIX e a década de 1920. Durante este período, o monopólio da cidade sobre o processamento e venda em varejo de carne garantiu um abastecimento constante com preços previsíveis. No entanto, na virada do século, “intrusos”, designação dada por funcionários municipais àqueles que tentaram introduzir seus produtos no mercado do Rio de Janeiro, passaram a questionar este monopólio centenário. Deste modo, durante um período relativamente curto, uma série de medidas foram implementadas no Rio de Janeiro: o combate à prática comum de abate clandestino; o estabelecimento de um sistema de abatimento público centralizado e relativamente regulamentado; e, finalmente, a introdução de frigoríficos. Este estudo considera o desenvolvimento dessas medidas realizando uma investigação mais ampla no tocante ao efeito da disponibilidade de carne per capita no Rio de Janeiro entre as décadas de 1890 e 1920.

Keywords

BrazilRio de Janeiromeat trademeat packingfoodstuffsconsumptionBrasilRío de Janeirocomercio de carneempacadoras de carneproductos alimenticiosconsumoBrasilRio de Janeirocomércio de carnefrigoríficosprodutos alimentíciosconsumo
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 349 - 376
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

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14 This is not a minor detail for it speaks to the facility with which natural grasslands were transformed into systematic pasturelands. Moreover, animals there were less prone to disease than in tropical and semi-tropical zones, which was certainly not the case in other areas of Brazil. Waibel, Leo, Capítulos de geografia tropical e do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Serviço Gráfico do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, 1958), pp. 9–13Google Scholar.

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19 Moreover, any genetic improvement must be accompanied by fencing and cultivated pastures, which only occurred consistently in Rio Grande do Sul after the First World War. Wilcox, ‘Ranching Modernization in Tropical Brazil’, pp. 375–8; Sesto, ‘The Vanguard Landowners of Buenos Aires’, p. 724; Bell, Stephen, Campanha Gaúcha: A Brazilian Ranching System, 1850–1920 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998), pp. 110–15Google Scholar; Waibel, Capítulos de geografia tropical, pp. 9–30.

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23 Mapas estatísticos da navegação e do comércio marítimo do porto do Rio de Janeiro, ano civil de 1891, Table 8, ‘Importação de gêneros nacionais por cabotagem’ (Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, 1894), pp. 157–62; Marcondes, Renato Leite, ‘O mercado brasileiro do século XIX: uma visão por meio do comércio de cabotagem’, Revista de Economia Política, 32: 1 (2012), pp. 150–60Google Scholar.

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25 See Klein, Herbert S., ‘The Supply of Mules to Central Brazil: The Sorocaba Market, 1825–1880’, Agricultural History, 64: 4 (1990), pp. 6–7Google Scholar; Schmidt, ‘Tropas e Tropeiros’, pp. 105–6; Jones, Clarence F., ‘A fazenda Miranda em Mato Grosso’, Revista Brasileira de Geografia, 12: 3 (1950), pp. 363–8Google Scholar.

26 Letter from Jeronimo Teixeira to Illmos. Srs. Presidente e Vereadores da Câmara Municipal, Rio de Janeiro, 25 May 1840, AGCRJ, Mercados de Carnes Verdes, Carnes e Matadouros; monopoly agreement concluded between the municipal council and Mr João Vicente de Brito Galvão for the purpose of establishing municipal butchers' shops, Rio de Janeiro, 31 Jan. 1876, modified 9 Feb. 1876, AGCRJ; ‘Mapa demonstrativo do movimento geral do gado cortado no matadouro público de Santa Cruz no primeiro trimestre de 1882’, AGCRJ; Almanak Laemmert, 1889, p. 207; letter from Antonio Justiniano Monteiro Resende, 23 Feb. 1900, AGCRJ.

27 Silva, Moacir M. F., ‘Um guia ferroviário brasileiro do fim do século XIX’, Revista Brasileira de Geografia, 16: 2 (1954), pp. 253–8Google Scholar.

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29 Paulo Roberto Cimó Queiroz explains that in 1919 the Estrada Federal Noroeste do Brasil offered a 50 per cent discount on freight tariffs, depending on the weight and quantity of the animals shipped. This author also notes that battles between the railways and cattle raisers over high freight rates lingered, especially in the 1930s and 1940s. However, given the conditions under which animals were driven prior to the advent of the railways, not necessarily in droving operations but in terms of deterioration of animal health/quality, the railway lines represented a major transport improvement (though an imperfect one, as they did not reach several areas of Brazil and were, in fact, poorly interconnected). See Queiroz, Paulo Roberto Cimó, Uma ferrovia entre dois mundos: A E. F. Noroeste do Brasil na primeira metade do século XX (Bauru, Campo Grande: EDUSC/Editora da UFMS), pp. 272–83Google Scholar; and Summerhill, William R., Order Against Progress: Government, Foreign Investment, and Railroads in Brazil, 1854–1913 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 85–98Google Scholar. See also the excellent website on Brazil's railways, available at www.estacoesferroviarias.com.br. All internet references were last checked in July 2014.

30 Ministério da Indústria, Viação e Obras Públicas, Directoria Geral de Obras e Viação, Estatística das estradas de ferro da união e das fiscalizadas pela união em 31 de dezembro de 1904 (Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, 1906)Google Scholar, Table 13; Bruno Nascimento Campos, ‘Tropas de aço: os primeiros impactos da Minas and Rio Railway sobre a economia de abastecimento do sul de Minas (1884–1902)’, Cultura Histórica & Patrimônio, 1: 1 (2012), p. 102Google Scholar.

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33 Refrigerating World, 54: 1 (1919), p. 22.

34 Luiz Raphael Vieira Souto, ‘Transportes em vagões frigoríficos’, 11 June 1915, AGCRJ, Carnes.

35 de Janeiro, Cidade do Rio, Remodelação, extensão e embelezamento, 1926–1930 (Paris: Foyer Brésilien Editor, 1930), pp. 93–4Google Scholar; Becker, Bertha K., ‘O mercado carioca e seu sistema de abastecimento’, Revista Brasileira de Geografia, 28: 2 (1966), pp. 139–40Google Scholar; Graham, Britain and the Onset of Modernization in Brazil, pp. 53–60.

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38 In the same context, other countries in the Americas and Europe experienced similar transformations related to urbanisation and industrialisation. See Kyri Claflin, ‘La Villette: City of Blood (1867–1914)’, pp. 41–5, and Brantz, Dorothee, ‘Animal Bodies, Human Health, and the Reform of Slaughterhouses in Nineteenth-Century Berlin’, pp. 82–5, in Lee, Paula Young (ed.), Meat, Modernity, and the Rise of the Slaughterhouse (Durham, NC: University of New Hampshire Press, 2008)Google Scholar; and Pilcher, The Sausage Rebellion, pp. 57–87.

39 Almanak Laemmert, 1889, pp. 286–7; de Freitas, Benedicto, História do Matadouro Municipal de Santa Cruz (Rio de Janeiro: Irmãos Pongetti Editores, 1950), pp. 26, 85–91Google Scholar; Brantz, ‘Animal Bodies, Human Health’, p. 80.

40 ‘Regulamento para o matadouro público’, 14 Feb. 1882, in Annaes do Parlamento Brazileiro, Câmara dos Senhores Deputados, Sessão de 1882, vol. 3 (Rio de Janeiro: Typographia Nacional, 1882), p. 32.

41 Indeed, consumption patterns at the national level did not exceed 15 kilos per capita annually. For a comparative perspective see also the cases of Spain, in González, Gelabert and Morales, Enríquez, ‘Un aspecto del consumo alimenticio en la España de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX’, Hispania: Revista Española de Historia, 38: 140 (1978), pp. 621–4Google Scholar; and Mexico, in Gobierno de México, Anuarios estadísticos de la república mexicana, 1893–1907 (Mexico City: Dirección General de Estadística, various years).

42 Governo do Brasil, Annuario estatístico do Brasil, p. 140. The Brazilian unit of currency was the mil-réis, which equalled 1,000 réis.

43 Calculation based on Rio imports of charque from 1885 to 1889: see Jornal do Commercio: Retrospecto Comercial, Rio de Janeiro, 1889 (Rio de Janeiro: Typographia de J. Villeneuve, 1890), pp. 16–17.

44 Governo do Brasil, Annuario estatístico do Brasil, p. 139.

45 Refrigerating World, 56: 6 (1921), p. 32; Souza, ‘Charqueadas i instal.lacions’, p. 89; Pesavento, Sandra Jatahy, República velha gaúcha: charqueadas, frigoríficos, criadores (Porto Alegre: Editora Movimento, 1980), pp. 57–61, 142–8Google Scholar.

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47 Jornal do Commercio, 10 Feb. 1906.

48 Diario do Commercio, 27 Nov. 1891; Mensagem do Prefeito do Districto Federal lida na Sessão do Conselho Municipal de 2 de abril de 1908 (Rio de Janeiro: Officinas Graphicas do Paiz, 1908), pp. 94–5.

49 In 1904, those revenues amounted to almost the same sum that the prefeitura collected from sanitary fees. Mensagem do Prefeito de Districto Federal lida na sessão do Conselho Municipal de 2 de abril de 1904 and 1 de setembro de 1904 (Rio de Janeiro: Typographia da ‘Gazeta de Noticias’, 1904), pp. 23, 65–6.

50 Letter to the mayor, 26 Oct. 1900, AGCRJ; ‘Bases para o acordo entre o Estado de Minas Gerais e o Distrito Federal’, 25 Jan. 1902, AGCRJ.

51 Dean, ‘A economia brasileira’, pp. 665–8.

52 Mensagem … 2 de abril de 1908, p. 12; Correio da Manhã, 9 May 1908; de Carvalho Elias Rabha, Nina Maria (ed.), Planos urbanos: Rio de Janeiro, o século XIX (Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Municipal de Urbanismo Pereira Passos, 2008), pp. 147–8Google Scholar.

53 Correio da Manhã, 22 Jan. 1903; 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 26, 28 Feb. 1903; 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 March 1903.

54 Urban populations in general resisted the systematic distribution of chilled and frozen meat – that is, until consumers were eventually swayed by lower prices and other structural changes. For a discussion of food consumption behaviour in relation to income, price, and cultural determinants, see Mintz, Sidney W., ‘Food, Culture and Energy’, in Nützenadel, Alexander and Trentmann, Frank (eds.), Food and Globalization: Consumption, Markets and Politics in the Modern World (Oxford: Berg, 2008), p. 29Google Scholar.

55 Jornal do Commercio, 2 Oct. 1917.

56 Contreras, J., ‘Meat Consumption Throughout History and Across Cultures’, Sciences des Aliments, 28 (2008), pp. 293–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Bourdieu, Jérôme et al. , ‘Crise sanitaire et stabilisation du marché de la viande en France, XVIIIe–XXe siècles’, Revue d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, 51: 3 (2004), p. 26Google Scholar.

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58 This process, of course, entailed improving stock lines to comply with the needs of the refrigerated industry and international consumption demands. Giberti, Horacio C. E., Historia económica de la ganadería argentina (Buenos Aires: Editora Raigal, 1954), pp. 168–9Google Scholar.

59 Governo do Brasil, Anuário estatístico do Distrito Federal, ano VI, 1938, p. 218. See also Horowitz, Roger, Putting Meat on the American Table: Taste, Technology, Transformation (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), pp. 29–33Google Scholar; Levenstein, Harvey, Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2003), pp. 23–6Google Scholar.

60 Waibel, Capítulos de geografia tropical, pp. 28–30.

61 Governo do Brasil, Agriculture Report, 1918, p. 181, and 1920, p. 191; Governo do Brasil, Anuário estatístico do Distrito Federal, ano IX, 1941 (Rio de Janeiro: Publicação do Departamento de Geografia e Estatística, 1942), p. 298Google Scholar; Refrigerating World, 54: 1 (1919), p. 24.

62 Likewise in Argentina, this process coincided with increasing beef prices due to the expansion in exports. See Smith, Peter H., Politics and Beef in Argentina: Patterns of Conflict and Change (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1969), pp. 74–5Google Scholar; Jornal do Commercio, 2 Oct. 917; Simonsen, Roberto C., The Meat and Cattle Industry of Brazil: Its Importance to Anglo-Brazilian Commerce (London: Industrial Publicity Service, 1919), pp. 2–5Google Scholar.

63 Love, Joseph L., São Paulo in the Brazilian Federation 1889–1937 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1980), pp. 258Google Scholar; Earl Richard Downes, ‘Brazil's “Essentially Agricultural” Old Republic and the United States, 1910–1930’, unpubl. PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1980, pp. 165–6; Freitas, História do Matadouro Municipal, pp. 111–16.

64 See Suzigan, Wilson and Szmrecsányi, Tamás, ‘Os investimentos estrangeiros no início da industrialização do Brasil’, in Silva, Sérgio S. and Szmrecsányi, Tamás (eds.), História econômica da primeira república: coletânea de textos apresentados no I Congresso Brasileiro de História Econômica, setembro de 1993 (São Paulo: Editora Hucitec/FAPESP/ABPHE, 1996), pp. 267–9Google Scholar; Bell, Campanha gaúcha, pp. 136–55; Downes, ‘Brazil's “Essentially Agricultural” Old Republic’, pp. 160–1; Graham, Britain and the Onset of Modernization in Brazil, pp. 196–7; and de Saes, Flávio Azevedo Marques, ‘Estradas de ferro e diversificação da atividade econômica na expansão cafeeira em São Paulo, 1870–1900’, in Szmrecsányi, Tamás and do Amaral Lapa, José Roberto (eds.), História econômica da independência e do império (São Paulo: EDUSP/Imprensa Oficial/Editora Hucitec, 2002), pp. 177–96Google Scholar.

65 The Brazilian Extract of Meat & Hide Factory Ltd. had started operations in Rio Grande do Sul in the late 1880s, but it produced meat extract and canned foodstuffs. Consul A. W. Bennett to Marquis of Salisbury, Foreign Office, 1890, ‘Diplomatic and Consular Reports on Trade and Finance, Brazil, Report for the year 1889–1890 on the Trade of Rio Grande do Sul’, Annual Series, no. 702 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1890), p. 9; Pearce, W. M., The Matador Land and Cattle Company (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964), pp. 128–9Google Scholar; Hanson, Simon G., ‘The Farquhar Syndicate in South America’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 17: 3 (1937), p. 317CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Mensagem de 14 de julio de 1915’, in Mensages apresentadas ao congresso legislativo de São Paulo pelos presidentes e vice-presidentes em exercício desde a proclamação da república até o anno de 1916 (São Paulo: Typographia do Diario Oficial, 1916), pp. 672–76; Bulletin of the Pan American Union, 14 (July–Dec. 1917), p. 59 n. 286–91.

66 Downes, ‘Brazil's “Essentially Agricultural” Old Republic’, p. 479.

67 Letter from Sociedade Anônima Frigorífico Anglo ao Exmo. Sr. Prefeito do Distrito Federal, 9 Sep. 1925, AGCRJ; reply from Antonio de Souza Pereira Botafogo, Diretor Geral da Diretoria de Abastecimento e Fomento Agrícola, 9 Sep. 1925, AGCRJ; Downes, ‘Brazil's “Essentially Agricultural” Old Republic’, pp. 476–9.

68 ‘Parecer do diretor geral da fazenda, Dr. Geremario Telles Dantas, sobre uma proposta apresentada em 1928, tendo por fundamento o decreto no. 3932 de 12/01/1927’, AGCRJ.

69 ‘Memorial apresentado pela Companhia Armour of Brasil Corporation’, 14 Dec. 1926, AGCRJ.

70 Ministério da Agricultura, Indústria e Commercio, Relatório dos trabalhos da superintendência do abastecimento durante o anno de 1922 (Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, 1923), pp. 46–7Google Scholar.

71 Governo do Brasil, Anuário estatístico do Distrito Federal, ano VI, 1938, pp. 218, 446.

72 This argument is inspired by the case of France, especially Paris: see Claflin, ‘La Villette’, pp. 41–2.

73 Governo do Rio de Janeiro, Consolidação das leis e posturas municipaes, 1906, p. 478.

74 For an in-depth analysis of this topic, see Gouvêa, Maria de Fátima Silva, ‘Poder, autoridade e o Senado da Câmara do Rio de Janeiro, ca. 1780–1820’, Tempo, 7: 13 (2002), pp. 111–55Google Scholar; Lenharo, Alcir, As tropas da moderação: o abastecimento da Corte na formação política do Brasil (São Paulo: Edições Símbolo, 1979), pp. 41–54Google Scholar; and Graham, Richard, Feeding the City: From Street Markets to Liberal Reform in Salvador, Brazil, 1780–1860 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2010), pp. 191–207Google Scholar. For the experiences of New York, Mexico City and Paris, see Horowitz, Roger, Pilcher, Jeffrey M. and Watts, Sydney, ‘Meat for the Multitudes: Market Culture in Paris, New York City, and Mexico City over the Long Nineteenth Century’, American Historical Review, 109: 4 (2004), pp. 1067–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

75 In the 1880s, the population of the Santa Cruz subúrbio (on the outskirts of the city) was still less than 100,000, but by the 1920s it had tripled. See Meade, Teresa A., ‘Civilizing’ Rio: Reform and Resistance in a Brazilian City, 1889–1930 (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 1997), p. 48Google Scholar.