From J. Stanke & Companhia to Companhia Cruzeiro: conception, setting up and inauguration of a safety match factory at Rua Miguel Ângelo, parish of Engenho Novo – Rio de Janeiro, 1888-1889

Abstract

In the late 1880s, encouraged by the opportunities opened by the “Encilhamento”, a heterogeneous group of investors, led by Gaffrée & Guinle, conceived, set up and inaugurated a match factory in a less densely occupied area of the urban parish of Engenho Novo, located in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The land chosen, on Rua Miguel Ângelo, was large and relatively inexpensive, allowing access to transport and labor. During the
organization of the industrial enterprise, investors redefined their legal profile, injected more capital into the business (to modernize it technologically) and reinforced principles of “industrial paternalism” and the “new factory”. Attentive to global conjunctures, the partners promoted changes that intended to put their match factory, located on the periphery of capitalism, at the forefront of innovations.