"Between rich and poor" Economic inequality, occupational diversity and social stratification in nineteenth-century Brazil: an analysis of the city of Pelotas (1850-1890)

Abstract

This article seeks to examine the multiple socioeconomic occupations of the free population of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, when slave charqueadas were at their peak. Escaping from a historiographical common sense, it seeks to demonstrate that the site, which had in the production of beef jerky and hides its main economic sector, showed a significant urban population, with notable professional diversification. However, the article is not restricted to these issues, aiming also to demonstrate that the individuals and social groups were hierarchically arranged in the society of the time, setting up a social structure in which a minority concentrated wealth and material resources at the expense of a majority.