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page 189 ---trade---sugar-cane---coffee---cotton---

The Brazilian is not deterred by the dangers and fatigues of a journey which often separates him eight or ten months from his family, from undertaking from time to time the management of his commercial affairs in person; for the more retired his native place is, the earlier he has accustomed himself to disregard long journeys from it. A man who undertakes almost weekly a journey of twenty-five miles on horseback to attend mass at church, or to visit his neighbors, does not fear to travel several hundred miles, if it is necessary, to exchange the harvest of one or several years for the valuable productions of foreign countries.

The exportation of the articles of commerce, produced in the country itself, to the ports of Europe, was the first foundation of the prosperity of Rio de Janeiro. The forwarding of goods imported from Europe, to the smaller ports, and into the interior, is indeed likewise a fertile source from which the capital annually derives large sums; but it bears no proportion to the mass of colonial produce which Rio sends overseas. The three most import articles of agriculture are sugar, coffee and cotton. Sugar is particularly cultivated in those districts of the capitania, which lie to the south and east of the mountain chain (Serra do Mar), and nearer to the sea (Beiramar), that is, in the districts of Ilha Grande, Cabo Frio and Goytacazes.

The two districts of Paraiba-Nova, and Canta-Gallo, lying beyond the mountain chain, are not so favorable to the cultivation of this article, which marks, as it were, the limits of the warmest and moistest parts of the country, where it grows luxuriantly.

page 190 ---introduction of sugar cane---coffee cultivation---

Most of the sugar plantations and factories (engenhos) are situated in the vicinity of the capital itself, and about Cabo Frio. It is well known that the cultivation of the sugar-cane was introduced into Rio de Janeiro by the governor Mem de Sa, immediately after the expulsion of the French, in the year 1568.

Blessing Mem da Sa's campaign against the French

The sugar exported from the harbor of Rio in 1817 amounted to 17,000 chests, or about 680,000 arrobas. It is only within these few years that coffee has been extensively cultivated in the capitania of Rio, and it has been observed that it will be equal in quality to that of Martinique and Santo Domingo, as soon as the necessary care is taken in gathering it. The coffee of Rio was formerly not liked in Europe, as they generally plucked the unripe berries, and in order to separate the seed from the external husk, they were allowed to corrupt, which injured the taste, and gave the berry a white colour and unsound appearance.

Coffee harvest in Rio de Janeiro

Within these few years the cultivation of the coffee tree, and the gathering of the crop have been improved; particularly since Dr. Lesesne, an experienced planter from Santo Domingo, who was driven from that country during the troubles, formed a great plantation in the neighborhood of Rio, and instructed the cultivators in the most advantageous manner of treating that plant.