Capital accumulation and ground-rent in Brazil: 1953–2008

The paper measures the size of primary-sector surpluses in the form of ground-rent appropriated by social subjects other than landowners in Brazil, and assesses their weight in supporting the process of capital accumulation during the period 1953–2008. For that purpose, the paper identifies the mechanisms through which state policies channelled a portion of ground-rent to capital, especially in the industrial sector, assessing their individual impact. The paper finds that transferred ground-rent has complemented surplus-value normally available for appropriation by capital and thus helped sustain its process of accumulation throughout most the period analysed here, including the post-1990 ‘neoliberal’ era.