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Viscount of Mauá | |
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 Portrait by Insley Pacheco,c. 1870 | |
| Member of the Chamber of Deputies | |
| In office 24 December 1872 – 22 April 1873 | |
| Constituency | Rio Grande do Sul |
| In office 27 August 1855 – 2 August 1866 | |
| Constituency | Rio Grande do Sul |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1813-12-28)28 December 1813 |
| Died | 21 October 1889(1889-10-21) (aged 76) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 18 |
| Parents |
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| Occupation |
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| Networth | $83 billionUSD (2023 dollars)[citation needed] |
| Signature | .jpg) |
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Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, Viscount of Mauá (Portuguese pronunciation:[iɾiˈnewivɐ̃ʒeˈliʃtɐdʒiˈsowzɐ]; 28 December 1813 – 21 October 1889), was a Brazilian entrepreneur,industrialist, banker and politician. Born to a family of smallestancieiros (ranchers), Sousa became one of the world's richest men; by 1867, his wealth was larger than the annual budget of theBrazilian Empire. He was calledtheRothschild of the South American continent by theNew York Times in 1871.[1] He received the titles ofbaron in 1854 andvisconde com grandeza (viscount withgrandee) ofMauá, in 1874. A pioneer in several areas of theeconomy of Brazil, one of his greatest achievements was to start the construction of theMauá Railroad, the first railroad in Brazil, in 1852.
At his peak, Sousa controlled eight of the country's ten largest companies (the remaining two were state-owned); his banking interests stretched over to Britain, France, the United States andArgentina. Mauá also founded the first bank inUruguay (Banco Mauá y Cia).
Sousa, who established the modernBanco do Brasil, is credited with financing much of the Brazilian economy activity in the 19th century, particularly in coffee plantation, and with the construction of the first railroads,shipyard andcast ironmetalwork in the country. Sousa commissioned the firsttelegraphicsubmarine cable connecting South America to Europe, developed commercial transportation viasteamboats on theAmazon andGuaíba rivers, and installed the firstgas-fueledstreet lights in the city ofRio de Janeiro, then Brazil's capital. His fortunes turned around with the decay of the Empire after theParaguayan War; by the time he died, Sousa had lost most of his wealth.
The second son of João Evangelista de Ávila e Sousa and Mariana de Jesus Batista, Irineu Evangelista de Sousa was born on 28 December 1813 on his father's ranch in the then village of Nossa Senhora da Conceição do Arroio Grande, currently the municipality ofArroio Grande, near Brazil's southernmost border with the Spanish dominions in South America, which at the time was part ofJaguarão in the captaincy of São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul.[2][3] Sousa had ancestry from theAzores. Records show his paternal grandfather, Manuel Jerônimo de Sousa, was the owner of the Arroio Grandesesmaria, that is, a large plot of land given by the Portuguese crown, in 1798.[4]
In 1818, when Sousa was five years old, his father was murdered while camping at night when travelling with a herd of cattle,[a] this deeply affected the family's income.[3][5] His mother then married again in 1821, but the new husband did not want her children from the previous marriage; Mariana then offered Irineu's sister, Guilhermina, who was only 12 years old, in marriage to a man named José Machado de Lima. Irineu, who was 9 at the time, was taken to Rio de Janeiro by his uncle at the request of his mother. His uncle, José Batista de Carvalho, was the captain and owner of a sailing ship and regularly travelled to India, Portugal and the Brazilian coast, stopping at several of its ports.[3][6]
WriterAnyda Marchant remarks Irineu might have had two years of schooling inSão Paulo, from 1821 to 1823, pointing out, however, that this is unlikely.[3] Another one of Irineu's biographers, Cláudio Ganns, dismisses this entirely, arguing that there is not any plausible indication to it.[7] Irineu had been taught how to read and count from a young age by his mother.[5] Once in Rio de Janeiro, the young boy was left alone, as his uncle once again sailed to India; Irineu was employed in a warehouse, where he worked as a clerk.[8]
At a time in whichBrazil economy was dominated by landowners who prioritized exports in a slave-based economy, Sousa defendedfree market,liberalism,industrialization and theabolition of slavery. After his death, he was given several honors and acknowledgements:
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