Patricia Acerbi analyses the rich world of street commerce in Rio de Janeiro from 1850 to 1925. This thoughtful study helps readers obtain a solid understanding of this important period in Brazilian history, which is marked by the transition from slavery to free labour and from monarchy to republic. She wonderfully describes the diversity of people involved in street commerce as well as their commercial practices. Prior to the abolition of slavery, a lot of the vendors were African-born or Brazilian-born slaves, but not exclusively; former slaves and poor immigrants from Southern Europe, particularly from Portugal, Italy and Spain, also sold wares on the streets. Others were from neighbouring countries like Uruguay, and some came from as far away as China. Racial and gender divisions defined commercial practices that reflected larger trends in Brazilian society. For instance, African-born women sold relatively inexpensive products such as sweets, fruits, herbs and vegetables. Portuguese men sold meat, which was expensive. Luxurious or fragile merchandise was sold exclusively by free people. For instance, Syrio-Lebanese immigrants sold valuable products from door to door during the second half of the nineteenth century.
What makes Acerbi's book such a fascinating read is that vendors are not the only subjects that she studies. The author discusses council members, court officials, policemen and journalists, as well as masters, patrons, suppliers, guarantors and shopkeepers – all involved in the dynamics of street commerce. The first four sometimes ambivalently regulated and policed vendors, and shaped perceptions of street commerce; the rest of them built patron–client relations that supported street vending and could protect sellers from arrests. A central and complex topic in the book is precisely the question of patron–client relationships. During slavery, the ganho system consisted of masters ‘sending slaves to carry out street work for returned earnings’ (p. 3) under the supervision of the state. After the abolition of slavery, the ganho system continued to exist but masters were replaced by patrons who hired free workers and kept a tradition of patronage.
One of Acerbi's main themes is the increasing regulation and policing of street commerce as Brazil transitioned from a slave society to a free labour society. Up to the 1870s street vendors were subject to city council regulations and from the 1880s they became regulated by the police. Acerbi argues that, after the abolition of slavery, the criminalisation of street commerce intensified, arrests of sellers increased and the displacement of vendors to Rio's outskirts became common. Restrictions on urban commerce led to the informalisation and marginality of street vending. In short, liberal ideas of free commerce and free labour, the author argues, did not apply to commerce on the streets.
Yet vendors were active subjects, and here Acerbi joins the scholarly community in demonstrating that vendors were active political agents. She shows that individual pedlars defended themselves against charges of vagrancy or public disorder, the most common accusations. Vendors defended themselves by stating that they were not vagrants, and that their occupation was that of street vendor. Some alluded to their relationship to their patrons to demonstrate their legitimacy as vendors. Pedlars also resisted collectively against state regulations. In 1912, they organised the União Protetora de Comércio Volante (Protective Association of Street Commerce, UPCV), a group that, drawing from practices of mutual societies, defended vendors from strict rules, policing and expensive licences. This association included vendors as well as patrons and suppliers, whose tensions and differences led to the end of the UPCV in 1914.
One of the most innovative parts of Acerbi's work is her discussion of technology at the turn of the twentieth century. In an effort to modernise the city, inventors and patent-developers tried to commercialise machinery, such as handcarts, that would improve the hygiene of street food. Other inventions, such as special kiosks, were fire-resistant. Yet others tried to upgrade the sale of local or Atlantic world products such as cold sugar cane juice. While improving hygiene was at the centre of these vending technologies, patent-seekers always depicted non-black sellers in their designs and drawings. These modernisers equalled street vendors to white men despite their racial diversity on the ground.
Acerbi's research is impeccable. She consulted all possible primary sources: newspapers such as the Gazeta de Notícias and its column ‘Street Occurrences’, advertisements, police and court records, vending licences, criminal codes, registry entries from the city's detention centre, lithographs, photographs, patent proposals, memoirs, chronicles and travellers’ accounts. Her thorough research allowed her to present a vivid portrayal of street commerce. For instance, she describes the soundscapes of Rio by looking at the cantos do trabalhador (literally ‘the worker's songs’), which consisted of ‘vibrant cries and catchy lines’ (p. 22). Either loved or detested by residents, these vendors’ sounds attracted clientele or helped them identify products.
This book will certainly interest students of the Atlantic world, slavery, migration, food studies and urban history. It is a wonderful addition to recent studies on street vending.
