O canto dos cisnes : análise do pensamento sobre a crise do Nordeste nos Anais do Congresso Agrícola do Recife, 1878

Abstract

In an attempt to accompany the new dynamic world, arising from the socalled "Second Industrial Revolution", the State Imperial Brazil, during the second half of the nineteenth century, has undertaken an agenda of key reforms for development the country. Positioning it self regarding this agenda and in order to draw the attention of the Imperial govemment to the problems of the region's sugar agribusiness, the elite Northeast - farmers, traders, intellectuals - called the Congress of Agricultural Recife (1878). In this dissertation, we will use as the main source Annals of Congress and examine the positioning of its participants regarding issues of Brazilian history - especially in the Northeast - and world of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The intention is to show the intemal debate of the elite northeastem about the various measures suggested to overcome the crisis and prosperity of the region, among which we can enumerate: vocational education; laws to combat vadiagem and crime as a way of recruiting men for poor free and the activities of agribusiness; employment; European immigration, farm equipment; roads iron; central devices; mortgage; reforms No imperial political system; reforms in the tax system, etc.. For methodological procedures, which the sinuosidades and confrontations between the congressmen, the analysis covers the plans: textual - each speech has an intemal dimension, a structure and an own logic - and intertextual - builds up a dialogue between the main source (the Annals) and other bibliographical workmanships and documents of time.