This paper studies the history of contractual choice in coffee plantations of São Paulo, Brazil. It focuses on the consolidation of non-captive labour markets in the early phases of the transition from slavery in the country, particularly in the 1840s–50s. Vis-à-vis the alternatives of fixed rents and fixed payments per time worked or piece rates, the paper examines the rationale for the adoption of sharecropping arrangements with European bonded labourers. New archival evidence suggests that sharecropping had no obvious productivity advantage over alternative labour–rental arrangements in this period, and that the adoption of sharecropping arrangements resulted from the positional advantage of its first proposers, who influenced later choices of contractual design. A credit-labour tie-up long outlived the original sharecropping arrangements, in turn allowing for the immigration of poor and credit-constrained Europeans, paving the way to insert Brazil into the circuits of mass migration without promoting institutional reforms to attract non-bonded immigrants.

中文翻译：

---

“适合阁下的同一合同”：巴西采用佃农兼债务安排的移民和竞争（1835-80）

本文研究了巴西圣保罗咖啡种植园合同选择的历史。它重点关注该国奴隶制转型早期阶段（特别是 1840 年代至 50 年代）非俘虏劳动力市场的巩固。针对固定租金和按工作时间固定付款或计件工资的替代方案，本文探讨了与欧洲抵债劳工采用佃农安排的理由。新的档案证据表明，在这一时期，佃农相对于其他劳动力租赁安排并没有明显的生产力优势，而佃农安排的采用是其最初提议者的位置优势的结果，他们影响了后来对合同设计的选择。信贷与劳动力的合作比最初的佃农安排长久存在，反过来又允许贫穷和信贷受限的欧洲人移民，为将巴西纳入大规模移民循环铺平了道路，而无需推动制度改革以吸引非保税移民。