“O pão nosso de cada dia”: a farinha de mandioca na cidade da Bahia e sua lavoura no Vale do Copioba, no Recôncavo Baiano

Abstract

The study focuses on different aspects of the secular northeast, food, manioc flour, specifically, in the city of Salvador and region of Vale do Copioba river in the Recôncavo of Bahia. Have time limits the 16th and 19th centuries. Favour the farming of cassava, forms processing, transport, exchange and consumption, since the indian farm birthplace of the cassava culture, until the end of the slave regime, in Brazil in 1888. Was based on the analysis and synthesis of documents, academic papers and manuscripts papers, to formulate and answer questions that allow the reconstruction of the use of the "daily bread", namely manioc flour. It was considered that, since the presence of the Governor General, Tomé de Souza, in the city of Salvador in 1549, -without forgetting the highlight that Pero Vaz de Caminha had already given to the "species of Yam"- until recent times, the cultivation of cassava was the basis of farming in this region, and manioc flour, the basis of food structure of residents of the city of Bahia and the Recôncavo Baiano. The scarcity of this constant state interventions motivated flour, both in your crop, how much flour trade. Shows the importance of cassava in Bahia, to the point, the Portuguese Metropolis, General Government, Presidents of the province and district governors, demanding that if they could plant and to benefit more cassava, which build Barn Public guarantee of supply everyday food, the cassava flour. It was found that the production of flour in the Recôncavo was insufficient to meet the consumption needs of the city of Bahia. In times of scarcity depended on the flour coming from other regions. This situation has prevailed since the beginning of the settlement of the Recôncavo Baiano until the 1890, after this decade, by State interventions in this region, have changed the ways of processing, distribution and consumption of flour. From this decade, with the end of slavery and, consequently, had the obligation to provide your flour slave, there was a portion of the former slaves provided farmers households or tenants of its previous owners, there was greater balance both the supply and demand of flour in the city of Salvador, reducing the problem of flour shortages in this city. It is concluded that, over the period studied, despite the constant interference by the State in the fields of manioc and cassava flour distribution, although your importance, your crop was not subsidized, like other typical products of the national crop. And its farmers have not received by the State the prominence that they fit to be the providers of food of the whole society.