Apontamentos sobre o processo de mercantilização de terras no Brasil

Abstract

The research entitled “Notes on the process of land commodification in Brazil” aims to understand the process of transforming land into a commodity in the particular Brazilian context. It was necessary to understand how this transformation is a consequence of Brazil´s socio-historical formation. The development process of the then colony was marked by the concentration of land in the hands of a few individuals and the extraction of natural resources for the benefit of the foreign market, thus producing a country that served as a commercial enterprise focused on the agro-export market. This structure formed the current Brazilian agrarian structure that had a major impact on the country´s economic and social development. Thus, it´s possible to affirm that the concentration of land in the hands of a few and production for the international market were essential to guarantee the development of the capitalist mode of production in Brazil. The State played a fundamental role in safeguarding the interests of the dominant classes. Based on the assumption that land plays a prominent role in analyses of Brazilian problems made by left-wing intellectuals and activists in the 1960s, the research also addresses the debate on the socioeconomic formation of Brazil made by intellectuals who were prominent in the period. The research was carried out using historical and documentary sources. It´s concluded that the process of land commodification in Brazil forged structures of political and economic power that remain within the Brazilian State to this day.