Análise socioeconômica de Alagoas: fontes e história sobre algodão e a indústria têxtil, 1850-1915

Abstract

Alagoas historiography gave precedence to sugar. Other products took part in this contribution, contrary to the supremacy of sugar. Cotton was one of other genres that helped our historical structure. Moving from a simple genre in the 16th and 17th centuries to an indispensable export item in the 19th and 20th centuries, reaching the same scale as sugar. Cotton transferred wealth, prosperity and development like never before. Cities without any intonation flourished, others were built with white fiber as a support. It transformed the means of driving and communicating, through the railroad tracks and steam navigation, enhancing the commerce in Alagoas. Its peak was the textile industries such as União Mercantil, a pioneer in the province. Later, the Companhia de Fiação e Fabric and Progresso appeared in the municipality of Santa Luzia do Norte, both commanded by Commander Teixeira Bastos. There existed Penedense, Pilarense, Miguelense and Agro Fabril Mercantil, known as Fábrica da Pedra, idealized by Delmiro Gouveia. These ventures dissipated class thinking among the weavers who, from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, pleaded for better working conditions, an unprecedented aspect in the sugar industry in Alagoas. Cotton also provided progress, beyond the borders of Alagoas, giving rise to real fiber emporiums, such as: Maranhão, Ceará, Paraíba, and Pernambuco, in the North and São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais in the South.