Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer and exporter.

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Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer and exporter, mainly producing and exporting high-priced Arabica coffee beans. According to the Brazilian National Commodity supply Company, the planting area of coffee in Brazil has reached 19000 square kilometers, and its output and export volume are close to 40% of the world's total. According to the Brazilian Coffee Association, coffee production exceeded 60 million bags (60 kg each) in 2014.

Coffee economy outshines others after independence

In 1820, the revolution broke out in Portugal, and the contradiction between Brazil and the sovereign state intensified day by day. On September 7, 1822, Pedro, Prince of Portugal and Regent of Brazil, declared the independence of Brazil. With the support of the constitutionalists, he was crowned emperor on December 1, known as Pedro I (Portugal officially recognized the independence of Brazil in 1825). Although the independent Brazil was politically separated from the direct rule of the Portuguese royal family, the land production system, single product system and slavery were all preserved intact. In this sense, the independence of Brazil is more like a separation movement, a "political revolution without social revolution", only that native whites have replaced the rule of "peninsula people". It did not fundamentally touch the social and economic structure of the colonial period, and this "path dependence" led to the abnormal prosperity of the coffee economy.

In the 1830s, coffee accounted for 43.8% of Brazil's total exports. In the mid-19th century, coffee farming peaked in Rio de Janeiro, centered around the Paraiba Valley. From 1851 to 1860, the average annual output of Brazilian coffee reached 2.6 million bags. At this point, Brazil has become the world's largest coffee producer. At the height of the Paraiba Valley boom, Rio de Janeiro controlled 88% of Brazil's coffee exports. Coffee growers use the ancient extensive slash-and-burn method to plunder the land and continue to cut down forests in order to expand the size of coffee plantations. once a piece of land shows fatigue, the growers give up the land. raze the new rainforest to grow coffee. By the 1870s, there was almost no new land to reclaim in the Rio de Janeiro area. Subsequently, the coffee economy extended to the west and north, and S ã o Paulo became another coffee growing center. After 1880, the average annual output of coffee in Brazil exceeded 5 million bags, and coffee production in the state of Sao Paulo exceeded that of Rio de Janeiro. In 1906, the annual output of Brazilian coffee jumped to 22 million bags. In 1908, coffee accounted for 53% of Brazil's total exports and accounted for half of the export economy.

So why does Brazil's coffee economy excel?

First, in terms of natural conditions, Brazil is the most extensive tropical country in the world, and conditions such as temperature, rainfall and light are suitable for the growth of coffee trees, a tropical cash crop.

Second, the demand for coffee in the international market has stimulated the development of Brazil's coffee industry. In the 18th century, coffee became a social and daily necessity for people in Europe and the United States. Between 1730 and 1735, world coffee consumption tripled. The huge market demand attracts coffee planters and trading companies, prompting them to expand their production scale.

Third, the rise and fall of mahogany, sugarcane and mining economic cycles not only create opportunities for the rise of coffee economy, but also provide primitive accumulation for its development. Since the 16th century, Rio de Janeiro has successively experienced two development stages of mahogany cutting and sugarcane planting, while the neighboring state of Minas Gerais is famous for mining minerals. The huge amount of foreign exchange brought by the export of these products has provided abundant funds for the coffee economy.

Fourth, immigrants provide sufficient labour for the labor-intensive economy of coffee. The labor force used by the coffee-growing industry in northern Brazil, which was the first to rise, came mainly from the slaves left by the sugar and mining cycles of the 16th and 18th centuries. After the Brazilian Congress banned the slave trade in 1850, immigrants from Europe and Asia became the main source of labor. Between 1887 and 1897, about 1.3 million immigrants entered Brazil, most of whom were engaged in coffee cultivation and related industries.

Fifth, modern means of transportation such as railways and ocean-going ships have greatly facilitated the export trade of Brazilian coffee. The total length of the Brazilian railway was about 1200 km in 1874 and increased to about 9600 km in 1889. The railway, which runs directly from coffee growers to Rio de Janeiro and the port of Santos, is used exclusively for coffee transport, while ships make it easier for Brazil to trade coffee with foreign countries. From 1821 to 1844, the per capita consumption of Brazilian coffee in the United States jumped from 28.35g to 2270 g.