ABSTRACT
The existence of sugarcane farmers who processed it in someone else’s mill was a particular feature of Brazilian slavery. In English and French sugar-producing colonies, planters industrialized only their own sugarcane, with no exceptions recorded. The need to receive sugarcane from autonomous farmers cannot be explained by the exceptional size of the mills. Although Anonymous Author placed plantation owners and farmers on the same social level, the truth is that there were conflicting interests between them, with the former clearly having the upper hand. Half of the sugar produced with the farmer’s sugarcane belonged to the plantation owner, and the other half to the farmer. The study of the slave ground rent requires a succinct introduction to the theory of ground rent in general and its main categories. The best lands in terms of fertility and location could never be freely appropriated, but were granted for free to a limited group of privileged individuals. .
