Cachaça in the Bahia Economy, 1870-1878

Abstract

The article analyzes cachaça in the Bahian economy between 1870 and 1878. It will address aspects related to production, exportation, prices, taxes, and the commercial flow of the beverage, with the aim of assessing the importance of the distilled spirit in the province. The temporal scope of the study was determined by the sources used in the research, namely: the speech of the provincial president (1878); tax collection books (1870-1878); post-mortem inventories; and accounts from foreign travelers. Cachaça had been present in Bahia since the colonial period, but in the second half of the 19th century, the sugar industry faced a crisis, and the Bahian economy underwent significant changes that altered the commercial dynamics of this beverage, as we intend to demonstrate in this study.