ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the origin of Brazil's important modem textile industry. Rejecting previous theories of textile manufacture, the position presented here is revisionist in nature, suggesting a direct, if uneven, line of development for the industry from the eighteenth century onwards. 1 The 1700s witnessed metropolitan support for an expanding proto-industrialized cotton cloth industry in Brazil in conjunction with an expansion of textile production in Portugal, a significant departure from mercantilist colonial paradigms. Where cloth production had previously been limited to home or plantation settings, heavily capitalized factories now appeared, especially in the north and the far west of Brazil. These mills produced surplus cloth for trade, employing a wage labour force that was mostly indigenous. Cloth was produced in both urban and rural settings, becoming a proxy for currency; salaries were calculated in rolls of fabric, while cloth became a medium of commercial exchange in many parts of the colony. Notwithstanding eventual metropolitan directives to halt this colonial production, cotton cloth of all categories continued to be manufactured in Brazil. The nineteenth century saw the expansion of Brazilian cotton mills which prospered even in the face of competition from inexpensive British textile imports. The diverse nature of the Brazilian textile workforce, which included slave and free labourers, and male as well as female weavers, is also considered.
