No. 22.
Mr. Trail
to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Rio de Janeiro, September 16, 1884. (Received October 24.)
Sir: With the growing conviction that the days of slavery are numbered in Brazil, the question of immigration becomes more and more vital to the Empire. It is the general belief that the slaves, when enfranchised, will cease to constitute the labor element.
Admitting this, and leaving the native as a laborer out of the question for the present, it is then necessary for the life of the country that a current of foreign laborers should set in to Brazil to take the place of the blacks. It is also held that the yield of the land will be far greater when obtained with free labor than it was when worked with slaves, or than could be obtained with the same element after freedom.
“During the five years (1874—’79) the state expended the immense sum of $13,000,000 to promote immigration and support immigrants.”* It had contracts with the Colonization Society of Hamburg, and with individuals, for the introduction of foreign labor. Three small islands in the bay were purchased for the free reception and care of from 800 to 1,000 for a period not to exceed eight days. Transportation by rail and steamboat to the provinces was offered free. In Espirito Santo, Parana, and São Pedro do sue commissions were organized for allotting state land to immigrants.
The efforts of the Government have been signally unsuccessful.
The number of spontaneous immigrants in 1876 was 30,000; in 1877, 29,000; 1882, 24,493 (official); 1883, 24,827 (official); there also came the same year 1,962 under special contracts. For the month of May ultimo, the latest statistics I possess, the number of immigrants was 2,806, of which number 329 were females. According to nationality there were 1,618 Portuguese, 655 Italian, 247 German, 116 Spanish, 110 French, 39 Austrian, 12 English, and 9 others; of these 2,806 only 204 went to the provinces to be agricultural laborers or settlers. In the same month there left the Empire 777 foreigners classed as immigrants, so that the actual gain for May was 2,029. The Journal do Commercio, commenting upon these figures, says:
If we except the Portuguese, who are not drawn hither by the efforts of the administration, from the totality (2,806) as entered in May, we have only 1,188, which certainly gives an insignificant result for our system. Although we would like to say the contrary, it is hut true that the current of immigration to Brazil shows no increase; we fear it will decrease when we consider that of all the countries now engaged in populating their territories it is Brazil that offers the least inducements to the foreign laborer.
Of the 24,827, who arrived in 1883, 13,737 were transported to the provinces, principally to Sao Paulo and to Rio Grande do Sul. These represent the number intending to engage in working the land. The remaining 11,090 either, in part, staid in Rio, returned to Europe, or went to the River Plata.
Bearing in mind that Brazil has an area equal to that of the United States (excepting Alaska), and that her population does not reach 11,000,000, the figures given above are discouraging.
The Government assumes all third-class passengers arriving in Rio to be immigrants. This leads to some error, as occasionally numbers under this head come to engage in some specific work for which they have contracted before leaving Europe, and on the expiration of which they immediately return with their savings.
The legal status of the immigrant is based on the law of 1879. Under it contracts are authorized by the Government to be made with foreign laborers for a term of years not exceeding five; provision is made for the renewal of contracts; the immigrant is not allowed to substitute any one in his place to fill out his term in case he is unwilling or unable to continue longer in the service of the contractor; in case the contractee becomes the debtor of the contractor he is obliged to remain one or two years longer in service under the original contract; the contractor is permitted to summarily dismiss a contractee for prolonged illness, drunkenness, or attack upon his honor or that of his family, and for insubordination. There is a clause also that specifies that in the absence of a specific agreement the laborer is to receive half the crop in case he has a separate parcel of land allotted to him.
In practice the contractor makes a specific agreement with the immigrant for five years, and where there is to be a division of the crop, the immigrant’s share is nearer one-fifth than one-half. The contractees find themselves so much in the power of their masters that many of them run away, preferring to lose their interest in the crop rather than remain longer in a condition of virtual serfdom. In some cases the immigrants who engage to work on fazendas (plantations) live in the same senzalas (quarters) with the slaves, and, in almost every case, as contractees they are far less independent than they were in the Old World.
The subject of immigration has an entirely different aspect in Brazil from what it has in the United States, Australia, and the Argentine Republic. There immigration is desired to open up and develop the latent resources; here the object is to replace the slave labor on land already for years under a fair degree of cultivation.
Nearly the only occupation outside the large cities open to the unskilled laborer arriving in Brazil is work on a fazenda, unless he can afford to wait from five to eight years before realizing anything from his efforts. The staples, coffee and sugar, require on a new plantation, the former five years, the latter two, before their crops pay at all. Of course, precedent to this is the necessary cleaning and preparation of the ground.
The importation of labor to work the land is especially desirable because there is no free agricultural labor in the country. The lower classes of Brazilians work only when compelled by the direst necessity, and cannot be relied upon for that steady, constant labor requisite for manipulating the soil successfully. The Brazilian is the offspring of either the Portuguese and negro, or the Portuguese and Indian, or the Indian and negro.
[Page 34]While this mixture of races has produced many men remarkable in politics, in the management of public affairs, and even in letters, every one knows this métissage has not formed a people of steady, economical workers.*
One characteristic of the nation is a certain mistrust, a feeling Of suspicion and dislike towards foreigners. Formerly this feeling was very bitter, but it has now nearly entirely disappeared. It accounts in a large measure for the fact that foreigners do not care to become naturalized; they do not come as genuine immigrants, but as colonists, and remain so, never becoming part of the body politic of the country. One finds here the Portuguese, French, and English colonies, besides others, each retaining its distinctive national characteristics.
As a way to solve the land-labor question it has been suggested and advocated that the large fazendas be divided into small farms to be cultivated by the immigrants on easy terms, and that the fazendeiros (landlords) only retain direct control of the mills and machinery for preparing the coffee and cane for market, such machinery being far too expensive for the immigrant to possess. The field work would then be under the management of the men who perform it, while the fazendeiros would control the more advanced stages in the manipulation of the crops. It is probable some such plan as this will have to be adopted when the negroes are freed.
Brazil cannot expect a really desirable class of laborers to come to her until slavery is abolished, until all religious orders are put on the same footing, and until more satisfactory immigration laws are enacted.
The question of immigration to this Empire is of great import to the countries of the Old World looking for an outlet for their surplus population. The interest the United States takes in the subject is, of course, of a different nature, it being the earnest, sincere desire to see a friendly power succeed in its plans for the prosperity of its people.
I have, &c.,