Public and Private in Immigration Societies: the case of the Sociedade Promotora de Imigração (1886 -1895)

Abstract

Formed by important coffee farmers in 1886, the Sociedade Promotora de Imigração was an example of how private issues can be transformed into public depending on the degree of involvement of its members within the government. With members occupying several important positions in both São Paulo’s and the Empire’s public administration, the society was able to raise the money, support and conditions needed for the main aspirations of the coffee elite as concerned manpower to be satisfied. Its proximity to the public power turned it into a sort of official immigration agency from 1886 to 1895. This ended only when the state was prepared to receive and shelter immigratory currents, but in such a way that the coffee plantations were never short of cheap, subsidized manpower.