134 years ago, the country’s economic engine was born

Aerial view of the Port of Santos complex in 1975. The organized port emerged as a response to structural inadequacies that failed to keep pace with economic expansion (Cândido Gonzalez/Acervo A Tribuna)

The docking of the cargo ship Nasmyth, an English steamship, on February 2, 1892, at the first 260-meter stretch of the Port of Santos marked the beginning of the organized port complex. However, the trajectory of the Santos waterfront, which today marks its 134th anniversary, began much earlier, recalls journalist, writer, and Santos history researcher Sergio Willians.

“For me, the zero milestone of the Port of Santos was at the entrance to the Barra, between Ponta da Praia and Praia do Góes (Guarujá). In 1541, Braz Cubas transferred the Port to the vicinity of Enguaguaçu, an area between what is now Valongo and Outeiro de Santa Catarina, where the nucleus that gave rise to the Vila de Santos was established,” explains Willians, who is also the author of the book A História do Porto de Santos.

The historical and administrative zero milestone of the so-called Organized Port, the researcher argues, occurred much later, on July 12, 1888. The date marks the authorization for the execution of the modern quay works, inaugurated in 1892 by the company that would become Companhia Docas de Santos (CDS).

For more than three centuries, Willians observes, the loading and unloading of goods were carried out using wooden bridges, planks, and piers, which were almost always private, precarious, and lacked technical standardization.

“The system worked, but it was slow, unsafe, expensive, vulnerable to weather conditions and epidemics, and incapable of keeping up with the growth of trade, especially after the arrival of the railway in 1867 (the São Paulo Railway). The Organized Port therefore emerged as a response to the structural inadequacy of the traditional port in the face of the modern economy, particularly the coffee economy,” he argues.

Beyond Economic Relations

The coffee cycle in the 19th century permanently changed the relationship between Santos and the Port, extending beyond a purely economic dimension. With coffee, in Willians’ view, it ceased to be merely an outlet for goods and became the City’s main urban, economic, and social engine.

“It was during this period that Santos experienced explosive growth, mass immigration, concentrated wealth, but also severe sanitary crises. The epidemics that plagued the City, associated with the precarious conditions of the Port and the piers, created a collective awareness that the City and the Port needed to be conceived as a single system,” he analyzes. “The construction of the Organized Port was an urban, sanitary, and civilizational project that forever redefined the relationship between Santos and the sea.”

If the port complex shaped Santos’ urban fabric, attracted investments, determined cycles of wealth and crisis, and stimulated sanitation, infrastructure, cultural, and educational works, it also played an articulating role in the Baixada Santista, according to Willians. “It boosted Cubatão as an industrial hub, integrated Guarujá, São Vicente, and Praia Grande into regional economic dynamics, and created networks of transportation, labor, and services. The Port of Santos complex remains, to this day, the main factor of economic cohesion in the region,” he states.

As one of Brazil’s main channels of integration with the world, the Port of Santos played a decisive role in the country’s economic formation. The reason is that it served as an outlet for key products of the colonial and imperial economy, such as sugar, gold, coffee, and later, industrialized goods.

“It also became the main logistical link for the interior of São Paulo, a region that would become the economic heart of the country, and enabled the agro-export model, especially in the 19th century, sustaining the Brazilian State and its integration into the international market. Likewise, it acted as a gateway for immigrants, capital, technologies, and ideas, influencing not only the economy but also Brazil’s social structure,” Willians concludes.