Development and industrialization in the interior of Rio de Janeiro: a contribution to the (rare) debate about the regional peculiarities

Abstract

The article has to be addressed in a historical perspective, internalization of development in the State of Rio de Janeiro, based on the focus of this process in one of his most industrialized parts outside the perimeter of the current metropolitan area, the Vale do Paraíba Fluminense, where is located one of the most important production units in the country, Companhia Siderurgica Nacional-CSN. In this sense, takes up the debate about the origins and expansion of capitalist development in the country, in the case of Sao Paulo, the country's largest industrial economy, was conditioned by the growth of the coffee activity in the late nineteenth century. In Rio de Janeiro, during the same period, coffee production has faced deep crisis. However, while this region has lost its industrial leadership, remained throughout the twentieth century as the second country's GDP, despite the analysis insist that qualify as de-industrialized economy and its "decadent". The analysis undertaken here seeks to locate the sources of investment and identify some enterprising responsible for the continuity of industrial development in the state in an attempt to explain the alternatives found there to address the diminishing importance of agriculture.