Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T09:22:41.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Governo do Brasil, Anuário estatístico do Distrito Federal, ano VI, 1938 (Rio de Janeiro: Serviço Gráfico do IBGE, 1939), p. 417Google Scholar; Graham, Richard, Britain and the Onset of Modernization in Brazil 1850–1914 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp. 112–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Orlove, Benjamin and Bauer, Arnold J., ‘Giving Importance to Imports’, in Orlove, Benjamin (ed.), The Allure of the Foreign: Imported Goods in Postcolonial Latin America (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1997), pp. 4–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McPhee, Kit, ‘“Immigrants with Money Are No Use to Us”: Race and Ethnicity in the Zona Portuária of Rio de Janeiro, 1903–1912’, The Americas, 62: 4 (2006), pp. 623–50Google Scholar; Frank, Zephyr, ‘Layers, Flows and Intersections: Jeronymo José de Mello and Artisan Life in Rio de Janeiro, 1840s–1880s’, Journal of Social History, 41: 2 (2007), pp. 307–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 That this premise has remained unchallenged by contemporary historiography, with no critical analysis of the available sources, only speaks to the need for further research on this topic. See Fausto, Boris, Trabalho urbano e conflito social (1890–1920) (Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo: Editora Difel, 1976), p. 59Google Scholar; Linhares, Maria Yedda Leite and da Silva, Francisco Carlos Teixeira, História política do abastecimento (1918–1974) (Brasília: BINAGRI, 1979)Google Scholar; and Pedro Henrique Pedreira Campos, Nos caminhos da acumulação: negócios e poder no abastecimento de carnes verdes para a cidade do Rio de Janeiro (1808–1835) (São Paulo: Alameda Casa Editorial, 2010), pp. 227–8Google Scholar.

4 With the exception of the Argentine and, perhaps, Uruguayan cases, this suggestion can be extended across Latin America. For Mexico, see Pilcher, Jeffrey M., The Sausage Rebellion: Public Health, Private Enterprise and Meat in Mexico City, 1890–1917 (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2006)Google Scholar. However, Shawn van Ausdal confirms that nationwide beef consumption in Colombia was much higher than in neighbouring countries: see van Ausdal, Shawn, ‘Mucha res y poco cerdo: el consumo de la carne en Colombia’, Revista de Estudios Sociales, 29 (2008), pp. 86–103Google Scholar.

5 Linhares and Silva, História política do abastecimento, p. 20.

6 For alternative explanations of Latin America's relationship with the international economy, see Conde, Roberto Cortes, ‘Export-Led Growth in Latin America: 1870–1930’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 24: S1 (1992), pp. 163–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Haber, Stephen (ed.), How Latin America Fell Behind: Essays on the Economic Histories of Brazil and Mexico, 1800–1914 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997), pp. 1–33Google Scholar; Frank, Zephyr, ‘Exports and Inequality: Evidence from the Brazilian Frontier, 1870–1937’, Journal of Economic History, 61: 1 (2001), pp. 37–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Topik, Steven, Marichal, Carlos and Frank, Zephyr (eds.), From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500–2000 (Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2006), pp. 1–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 ‘Parecer do diretor geral da fazenda, Dr. Antônio Geremario Telles Dantas, sobre uma proposta apresentada em 1928, tendo por fundamento o decreto no. 3932 de 12/01/1927’, Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro (AGCRJ).

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

9 This assessment appeared in the Latin-American Yearbook, paraphrasing a report by the Brazilian Railway Company published in 1912; Latin-American Yearbook for Investors and Merchants for 1918 (New York: Criterion Newspaper Syndicate, 1918), p. 87.

10 See Governo do Brasil, Annuario estatístico do Brasil, 1°. anno (1908–1912), vol. 2 (Rio de Janeiro: Typographia da Estatística, 1917), pp. iv–xivGoogle Scholar; Simonsen, Roberto C., The Meat & Cattle Industry of Brazil; Its Importance to Anglo-Brazilian Commerce (London: Industrial Publicity Service, 1919), pp. 2–5Google Scholar.

11 Perren, Richard, Taste, Trade and Technology: The Development of the International Meat Industry Since 1840 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), p. 33Google Scholar; Zimmerman, David, ‘Live Cattle Export Trade between United States and Great Britain, 1868–1885’, Agricultural History, 36: 1 (1962), pp. 47–52Google Scholar; Walton, John, ‘Pedigree and the National Cattle Herd circa 1750–1950’, Agricultural History Review, 34: 2 (1986), pp. 149–70Google Scholar; Sesto, Carmen, ‘The Vanguard Landowners of Buenos Aires: A New Production Model, 1856–1900’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 82: 4 (2002), pp. 721–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Governo do Brasil, Annuario estatístico do Brasil, p. xi.

13 Wilcox, Robert W., ‘“The Law of the Least Effort”: Cattle Ranching and the Environment in the Savanna of Mato Grosso, Brazil, 1900–1980’, Environmental History, 4: 3 (1999), pp. 339–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Campo cerrado’, Revista Brasileira de Geografia, 2: 3 (1940), p. 478; Vianna, Fernando Segadas, ‘Os diferentes tipos de vegetação do Brasil e sua possibilidade de explotação e utilização’, Revista Brasileira de Geografia, 26: 2 (1964), pp. 241–2Google Scholar.

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.

15 Petrone, Maria Thereza Schorer, ‘As áreas de criação de gado’, in de Holanda, Sérgio Buarque (ed.), História geral da civilização brasileira, vol. 1, book 2 (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Bertrand Brasil, 1993), pp. 218–27Google Scholar; ‘Campos de criação do Rio Grande do Sul’, Revista Brasileira de Geografia, 2: 2 (1940), p. 262; Maria da Glória de Carvalho Campos, ‘Notas para um estudo da distribuição do rebanho bovino no Brasil meridional’, Revista Brasileira de Geografia, 17: 3 (1955), pp. 334–9Google Scholar; Becker, Bertha K., ‘Expansão do mercado urbano e transformação da economia pastoril’, Revista Brasileira de Geografia, 28: 4 (1966), pp. 297–303Google Scholar.

16 Manuel José da Costa [illegible], ‘Demonstração discriminada do gado bovino abatido no matadouro de Santa Cruz por nossa conta nos anos de 1893–1896’, 14 May 1900, AGCRJ, Carnes e Matadouros; Oakenfull, J. C., Brazil in 1911 (Frome: Butler & Tanner, 1912), p. 240Google Scholar.

17 See the experiences of Percival Farquhar in Brazil: Gauld, Charles A., The Last Titan: Percival Farquhar, American Entrepreneur in Latin America (Stanford, CA: Institute of Hispanic American and Luso-Brazilian Studies, 1964), pp. 218–27Google Scholar.

18 Contrary to chilled beef, charque production did not require improved cattle. Wilcox, Robert W., ‘Ranching Modernization in Tropical Brazil: Foreign Investment and Environment in Mato Grosso, 1900–1950’, Agricultural History, 82: 3 (2008), pp. 375–8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

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.

20 For descriptions of the Brazilian cattle trails (boiadas), see Deffontaines, Pierre, ‘The Origin and Growth of the Brazilian Network of Towns’, Geographical Review, 28: 3 (1938), pp. 382–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sodré, Nélson Werneck, ‘Travessia do gado’, Revista Brasileira de Geografia, 12: 2 (1950), p. 337Google Scholar; Schmidt, Carlos Borges, ‘Tropas e Tropeiros’, Journal of Inter-American Studies, 1: 2 (1959), pp. 105–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Silva, Moacir F., ‘Geografia dos transportes no Brasil’, Revista Brasileira de Geografia, 1: 3 (1939), pp. 68–9Google Scholar; de Souza, Elza Coelho, ‘Distribuição das propriedades rurais no estado de Minas Gerais’, Revista Brasileira de Geografia, 13: 1 (1951), pp. 47–70Google Scholar.

21 de Souza Destro, José Augusto, ‘Café e pecuária em Juiz de Fora – 1896–1930’, Revista de História Econômica & Economia Regional Aplicada, 1: 1 (2006), pp. 14–21Google Scholar; Oakenfull, Brazil in 1911, p. 240; Refrigerating World Incorporating Cold Storage & Ice Trade Journal, 56: 6 (1921), p. 32.

22 Raúl Jacob, ‘La inversión uruguaya en Brasil: los saladeros de la frontera’, paper presented at Segundas Jornadas de História Regional Comparada, Primeiras Jornadas de Economia Comparada, FEE, UNISINOS and PUCRS (Porto Alegre, 2005), p. 10; Augusto Farinatti, ‘Criadores de gado na fronteira meridional do Brasil (1831–1870)’, paper presented at Segundas Jornadas de História Regional Comparada (Porto Alegre, 2005), p. 8; Bell, Campanha gaúcha, pp. 145–8; Crossley, J. Colin and Greenhill, Robert, ‘The River Plate Beef Trade’, in Platt, D. C. M. (ed.), Business Imperialism, 1840–1930: An Inquiry Based on British Experience in Latin America (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), pp. 293–6Google Scholar.

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.

24 de Souza, Susana Bleil, ‘Charqueadas i instal.lacions frigorífiques a la frontera gautxa: el trànsit pel port de Montevideo a principis del segle XX’, Recerques: Història, Economia, Cultura, 45–6 (2002–3), p. 89Google Scholar; Jornal do Commercio, 3 Oct. 1917.

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.

28 Dean, Warren, ‘A economia brasileira, 1870–1930’, in Bethell, Leslie (ed.), História da América Latina, de 1870 a 1930, vol. 5 (São Paulo: EDUSP/Imprensa Oficial São Paulo, 2002), p. 689Google Scholar.

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.

31 The Brazilian Year Book 1908, (Rio de Janeiro: Offices of the Brazilian Year Book, 1908), pp. 607–17.

32 Ministério da Viação e Obras Públicas, Estatística das estradas de ferro da união e das fiscalizadas pela união relativa ao[s] ano[s] de 1908 to 1920 (Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, various years), Table 13; Bell, Campanha Gaúcha, pp. 142–8. It is important to stress that beasts of burden continued to link production areas in the interior with nearby ports and railway stations, from where goods were carried to their final destination. Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak, ‘Comércio de animais de carga no Brasil imperial: uma análise quantitativa das tropas negociadas nas províncias do Paraná e São Paulo’, unpubl. Master's thesis, UNESP, Araraquara, 2006, pp. 5–8.

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.

36 da Rosa, Francisco Ferreira, Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro: Edição Oficial da Prefeitura, 1905), p. 239Google Scholar.

37 Lobo, Eulália Maria Lahmeyer, História do Rio de Janeiro: do capital comercial ao capital industrial e financeiro, vol. 2 (Rio de Janeiro: IBMEC, 1978), pp. 471–2Google Scholar; Alexandrino Freire do Amaral e Ernesto dos Santos Silva, ‘Condições para o commercio ambulante de miudos de rezes’, in Governo do Rio de Janeiro, Consolidação das leis e posturas municipaes (Rio de Janeiro: Oficinas Tipográficas de Paula Souza, 1906), arts. 752–3, pp. 177–8Google Scholar.

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.

46 Jornal do Commercio, 5 Oct. 1901; 3, 23, 26, 30, 31 May 1902.

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.

57 Roberts, John, ‘Annual Production of Animals for Food and Per Capita Consumption of Meat in the United States’, in USDA, Twenty-Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Animal Industry for the Year 1905 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1907), p. 282Google Scholar.

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.