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1. Figures concerning the area and population of the Amazon
vary according to the way it is defined. The figure of
4,87l,500Km² refers to so-called Amazônia Legal," which
comprises the whole of the Região Norte, with the states of
Pará Amazonas, Acre, Amapá, Roraima, plus adjacent areas of the
Região Centro-Oeste, with the state of Rondônia and parts of
Mato Grosso and Goiás, plus a chunk of the North-East, with the
state of Maranhão. The city of Manaus had in 1987 an estimated
population of 1,100,000.
2. The biggest change in the limits of Brazilian Amazonia since
the Treaty of Madrid was due, early in the twentieth century, to
the conquest from Bolivia of the present Brazilian state of Acre,
located in the far south-west of the region.
3. Although some of the tax incentives of the Suframa system
apply to the whole of western Amazonia (with the states of
Amazonas, Roraima, Acre, and Rondônia investments have been
overwhelmingly concentrated in the city of Manaus and its
immediately surrounding area.
4. Excluding informal contacts, social gatherings, and the like
(often an invaluable source of information), I conducted a total
of 20 formal, in-depth interviews.
5. I tried to elicit as many data as possible on two special
topics: the ethnic and cultural background of interviewees, and
their relationship, as acting entrepreneurs, with the Free Trade
Zone administration.
6. Of course, the very concept of a "real thought" is
rather elusive and almost unreal. Why should some thoughts be
more real than others? What I really understand by that
expression are the guiding principles actually expressed in the
behaviour of people. Indeed the ideal method of anthropology
consists less in doing interviews than in observing the actual
behaviour of social and cultural actors. However, circumstances
often impose the adoption of methodological short cuts.
7. Of course financial benefits in the Free Trade Area also
assume forms other than returns on invested capital: there are
also the honoraria of consultants, lobbyists, and the like, as
well as the salaries and gratuities of technicians, bureaucrats,
public servants, etc.
8. Both Sombart and Weber, despite the apparent ethnocentrism of
some of their statements, would certainly be ready to admit as
"European" (in a very broad sense) North American,
Japanese, and even some forms of South American entrepreneurship.
9. By this expression I mean, as the context of this paper has
made clear, the commercial linkages, ohen reinforced by ethnic
and kinship ties, between tradesmen in Manaus and their suppliers
in Colón (Panama), Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. The study of these
linkages would certainly represent an investigation of the
highest interest for the anthropology and sociology of economic
activity.
10. Just as a footnote to these theoretical remarks, let us also
remark that Marx, a long time before Sombart and Weber and in
spite of his thoroughly different conception of historical
progress (since for him "the world of religion" is but
"the reflex of the real world" of economic production),
did not fail to note the connection between members of certain
ethnic and religious groups and certain forms of economic
activity. Thus, he speaks of the link between capitalism and
Protestantism and mentions the presence of "Jews in the
pores of Polish society" (Marx, 1967: 79).
11. Of course the gains of bureaucrats are not limited to their
salaries and bonuses. To give just one example, they are also not
infrequently recruited to top posts of private enterprises.
12. He adds: "The surplus production of this very strictly
commandeered labour [in the Inca empire] went to the state, which
applied it both to the reproduction of the material machinery of
the state and to the maintenance of the court, and administrative
officers, priests, and the military - i.e., officialdom in its
diverse categories. The situation here is completely
transparent" (Wittfogel, 1968; 189).
13. They have in mind the recently arrived manufacturers, who
came to Manaus after the establishment of Suframa and with its
support. Traditional crafts are not contemplated in their
answers.
14. In a very broad sense. There are Paulistas not only from São
Paulo but from practically every Brazilian state, and even some
European ones. Paulistas are overwhelmingly managers of local
branches of multinational and multiregional firms.
15. Two (maybe three) four-star hotels, a supermarket, and some
shops belonged to East Indian &mikes, who had already started
investing, in 1987, in the industrial sector as well. The links
of these families of Sindhi roots with the East Indian diaspora
found in Colon (Panama), Singapore, Hong Kong, etc., would
certainly constitute a fascinating research topic in its own
right. According to one of my East Indian informants, his is a
small community in Manaus, which, although it never fails to
gather "on Independence Day, Constitution Day, Dewali,"
is rapidly being assimilated by the local society. My infommant
attributes this assimilation to the surprising absence of "a
colour bar" in Manaus and to the influences of everyday life
and of television programmes, mainly upon the young.
16. "Native," let it be stressed, no more than in the
sense that they were already in the Amazon previous to the
establishment, in 1967, of the Zona Franca system. To many of
these entrepreneurs much of Weber's description of the
"pariah community" would also apply. Keeping also in
mind Marx's "Jews in the pores of Polish society," let
us read the following quotation from a recent observer: "The
so-called rubber economy gave rise to a strange pattern of
interaction between the rural areas and the urban sector located
in Manaus . . . There was no money in the interior and rural
produce was exchanged for all sorts of manufactured goods,
including household appliances, machines, equipments, etc.
Traders based in Manaus took part in this process by importing
produce from the hinterland in exchange for everything that was
required by the rather primitive latex [the raw material for
industrial rubber] gathering economy. It is in the wake of this
process that we hear of the great merchant firms of that time,
such as I.B. Sabba, M.F. Sorfaty, J. Benzecry, O.F. Bauman, and
Jacco Sabba" (Mourão, 1984: 17).
17. But then there are several kinds of "natives," as
the "immigrants" are themselves aware. They are not
likely to confuse the member of a family of traders of recent
Portuguese or Middle Eastem ongin with a caboclo whose parents
lived by gathering latex in the jungle.
18. And this represents the whole difference between the power of
the Superintendente da Suframa and those formerly wielded by the
Mogul Emperors.
19. That tendency had already been observed by Mahar in his 1979
book: "Since the passage of this legislation [creating
quotas and a total ceiling of imports], Suframa has shown a
marked preference for industry; during 1987, commerce was
allocated only 76 million US dollars (23.8%) ... while industry
was allocated 200 million (62.5%). During the pre-import
restriction year of 1975 ... commerce imported 94 million US
dollars (44.9%) and industry imported 100 million (47.8%) of 210
million US dollars total" (Mahar, 1979;153).
20. Supposing, of course, that the higher the value of a quota
attributed to a firm, the bigger the final profit of that firm.
21. Of course table 7.1 is very far from telling us the whole
story. It tells us nothing about individual shareholders. I did
have access to documents listing every individual owner or
coowner of every firm registered at Suframa, but I did not have
the resources, the time, or the institutional support required
for a detailed investigation on individual ownemhip in the Zona
Franca.
22. The mere inspection of names listed in table 7.3 indicates
the importance in Manaus of investments by multinational and
multiregional enterprises, locally represented by what I have
called in this paper "surrogate entrepreneurs."
23. "Local" meaning those enterprises which were
already installed in Manaus previous to the creation of the Free
Zone. Locals often exhibit a somewhat ambiguous attitude toward
the Zona Franca, Suframa, and the Supenntendent. Thus, one of
their representatives, who happened to be one of the most
respected tradesmen of traditional Manaus, had a very negative
discourse concerning the tax incentive system and the way it was
implemented. Yet he added: "I sell to prosperity and I eat
from the cake." Then why the negative speech? First, because
of what he sees as the inequities of the quota-distributing
process. Second, and probably more important, because, in spite
of what he may have gained in absolute economic terms with
creation of the Free Trade Zone, he, and others like him, who
used to constitute la crème de la crème of the local society,
have suffered a relative loss with the coming into the area of
foreign and Paulista firms and of the huge state bureaucracies
which the older elites can no longer control.
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