Mauá and the Making of Modern Brazil: Entrepreneurship, Law, and Economic Transformation in the Empire

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between entrepreneurship, legal transformation, and economic modernization in nineteenth-century Brazil through an analysis of the film Mauá – O Imperador e o Rei and the historical trajectory of Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, the Viscount of Mauá. Drawing upon legal history, economic history, and historiographical research, the study investigates how Mauá’s entrepreneurial initiatives intersected with the structural changes experienced during the Brazilian Empire, particularly in the fields of industrialization, commercial law, infrastructure, banking, transportation, and labor relations. The article argues that Mauá embodied an early model of entrepreneurial modernity that challenged the agrarian and slaveholding foundations of imperial Brazil. By contextualizing the emergence of protectionist policies, the abolition of the slave trade, the enactment of the Commercial Code of 1850, and the expansion of industrial and financial activities, the study demonstrates how legal and institutional reforms both enabled and constrained economic development. Methodologically, the research adopts a bibliographic and documentary approach grounded in doctrinal, legislative, and historical sources. The article concludes that Mauá’s experience illustrates the tensions between innovation and political resistance in peripheral capitalist societies, highlighting the enduring role of entrepreneurship as a driving force of social and economic transformation.