International Financial Capital and the Brazilian Land Market

• Published date: 01 September 2018
• Author: Fábio Teixeira Pitta,Maria Luisa Mendonça
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X17713180
• Date: 01 September 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 222, Vol. 45 No. 5, September 2018, 88–101

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X17713180

© 2017 Latin American Perspectives

88

International Financial Capital and the

Brazilian Land Market

by

Maria Luisa Mendonça and Fábio Teixeira Pitta

International financial capital stimulated the production of industrial agricultural

supplies in Brazil during the foreign debt crisis of the 1980s. In the mid-1990s new finan-

cial sources became available for debt rollovers, and this fueled a new cycle of industrial-

ization in agriculture. This trend intensified in the years that followed, when commodity

prices were high on the international markets. It led to an increase in the concentration of

capital in agricultural assets such as machinery and land, which in turn generated a new

cycle of indebtedness for agribusiness. This process of crisis accumulation was marked by

the overexploitation of labor and predatory control over natural resources.

Capitais financeiros internacionais de empréstimo fomentaram a internalização da

produção de insumos industriais agrícolas no Brasil, em um período que coincide com a

crise da dívida externa brasileira na década de 1980. A partir da metade da década de 1990,

a retomada dos financiamentos para a rolagem de dívidas promoveu um novo ciclo de

industrialização da agricultura. Esta tendência se acentuou nos anos posteriores durante

o período de alta dos preços das commodities no mercado internacional e fomentou o

aumento da concentração de ativos financeiros na forma de maquinário e terras, gerando

um novo ciclo de endividamento para o agronegócio. Este processo de crise-acumulação é

marcado pela superexploração do trabalho e pelo controle predatório de recursos naturais.

Keywords: Land market, Industrialization of agriculture, Financial capital,

Debt crisis

Examining the role of international financial capital in speculation in farmland

in Brazil, this article analyzes the changes in the mechanisms of capital accu-

mulation since the economic crisis of the 1970s that facilitated the mobility of

financial capital internationally and led to the global economic crisis of 2008.

One of the main players in farmland speculation in Brazil is the sugarcane

agribusiness corporation Cosan. The largest sugarcane producer in Brazil, it

laid the foundation for the current speculation in farmland. The expansion of

land markets stimulated extensive monocropping of agricultural commodities

such as sugar and soybeans, and this increased labor exploitation and environ-

mental destruction.

The 2008 crisis increased the role of financial capital in the agricultural land

market. At times of economic instability at the international level, land market

Maria Luisa Mendonça is a professor of international relations at the University of Rio de Janeiro.

Fábio Teixeira Pitta is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Geography of the University

of São Paulo.

713180LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X17713180Latin American PerspectivesMendonça and Pitta / Financial Capital And The Brazilian Land Market

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