From poor immigrants to small industrialists: the formation of the industrial business class in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo/Brazil (1890–1960)

Abstract

This article analyzes the formation of the industrial business class in two important cities of the state of São Paulo/Brazil, Ribeirão Preto and Franca, during a period in which the capital of São Paulo spearheaded Brazilian industrialization (1890-1960). Therefore, our analysis clashes with what is commonly written about the relationship between immigration and industrialization. After all, in the interior, immigrants and their descendants were not mere failures who, driven out of the countryside, were employed in some factory in the capital. In these cities, they had a social mobility and helped tell an important story of the Brazilian industrial class.

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