On the Portuguese nineteenth century: the transition to capitalism

Abstract

Under the theoretical point of view, the Portuguese nineteenth century coincides with the problematic of the transition to capitalism. Already in the middle of the seventeenth century the appropriation, by Portuguese capital, of Brazilian production aimed at the MCP (mode of capitalist production). Nevertheless it was not yet the submission of metropolitan producers but of Negro slaves to the capital. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Methuen Treaty corresponded to the first significant advance of capitalism in agriculture. But only in the second half of that century took place the decline of the «old regime»: for the capital belonging to the trading bourgeoisie to make raids into the agriculture was not enough any more and it extended its activity to the manufactures, the building construction and the appropriation of the urban predial rent (rebuilding of Lisbon after the earthquake of 1755). Nevertheless only in the middle of the nineteenth century the Portuguese social formation was able to surpass the stage of primitive accumulation, entering the first historical phase of the development of capitalist production. Finally, the periode of 1870-90 was that of consolidation of capitalist relations of production. In industry there was a «leap» according to the import-substitution model, which introduced the big enterprise into the country, through the cotton textile plant. In agriculture there was an increase as far as the agrarian capitalism and the peasant's submission to the market are concerned. But in the meanwhile a massive emigration and the integration of Portuguese African colonies into the national economic space hindered the development of the forces of production and, therefore, the «normal» development of capitalism in Portugal.