Tobacco planters and collectors in the Alto Paraná colonization of Misiones (1930-1946)

Abstract

During the settler expansion between the decades 1920-1930 in the Alto Paraná of Misiones, the tobacco was for German-Brazilian settlers a product to obtain monetary incomes and for their own consum. The aim of this paper is to analyze the link between producers and collectors of tobacco, trying to identify the conflicting elements of this relationship (disputes over the classification and the product price). The heuristic work focused on Johann Company, the company's largest collectors of Puerto Rico Colony and the only one that keeps the records since its beginings (1929). The product their collected the most time was tobacco (1929-1985), and in descending order of importance their also collected tung, cassava starch and lard. Throughout the book collection of tobacco sales it is showed both sides of the production of tobacco: tobacco producers and collectors. This information has been enriched by interviews with key informants.