Coffee Port

Santos has always been linked to its port since the formation of its settlement. But the city would only gain national and international projection with the development of coffee production in São Paulo, in the second half of the nineteenth century, taking a central role in the export logistics of the product.

A coffee complex was consolidated which, in addition to the port, had warehouses for storage, handling, and bagging of the beans, institutions dedicated to its marketing, such as exporters, commissioners, brokers, and banks, and a logistical structure for the transportation of the product to its shipment. 

Scenes of the dock under construction, rows of docked ships, coffee shipments, and panoramic views were part of photo albums and were even sold as postcards, showing a Santos identity strongly linked to the coffee and port activities.    

It was in this scenario that two of the main photographers of the 19th century registered the city. The first, Militão Augusto de Azevedo, focused on the city shortly before the arrival of the São Paulo Railway, which facilitated the descent from the mountains, in the mid-1860s. 

The structure was quite simple: wooden bridges crossed the arm of the sea that still followed the natural contour of the island; without warehouses, the cargo was stored on the first floors of two-story buildings, and could often be seen along the port area.

However, the most requested was Monte Serrat, because of its central position on the island that allows different angles, framing both this portion of the city and the part that expanded towards the beaches.

Another point used was Barnabé Island, on the other side of the estuary. Although lower, it showed the city from the port inwards, contemplating another aspect of the territory. 

The increased movement of goods made possible by the railroad aggravated the problems already faced by the precarious Santos port since the middle of the 19th century. 

The complaints from merchants were frequent, pointing out the delay in loading and unloading ships, goods piled up on the dock, subject to deterioration and robbery, disorganization at Customs, and the vulnerability of crew and workers to the epidemics that plagued the city.

In the following years, the company was awarded new grants, extending its dock to both Valongo and Paquetá, and later to the so-called Outeirinhos, bordering the estuary and monopolizing the loading and unloading of goods with the demolition of the old trapiches.

This initial phase of port implementation was recorded by the company itself, which published the album "Santos and the Cia das Docas" in 1904. It is also present in the work of Marc Ferrez, José Marques Pereira, and other photographers who recorded the transformations in the port and in the city.

The export of coffee was the main activity of the Santos port in the first four decades since the beginning of its modernization. In 1909, there were 13,130,933 sacks, participating with 787,856 of a total of 822,237 tons of exported goods, i.e., 95.8% of the movement. 

The situation was already quite different in the five-year period from 1959 to 1963. Coffee accounted for only 19.2% of the total volume of exported goods, showing a more complex and diversified port. Nevertheless, even with the competition from Paranaguá, Santos was the main exporter of the product. 

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the most common way to move the sacks was on the backs of the loaders who, in rows, carried one or two sacks at a time from the wagons to the ship. 

As the reforms in the port progressed, the figure of these loaders disappeared, being replaced by an extensive system of conveyor belts and overhead cranes that transported the coffee into the ships. 

And by the slings - several sacks tied together, driven by cranes. 

Besides the groups of loaders, and the Companhia Docas workers responsible for the work performed at the dock, the photographs record the performance of stevedores, especially those who performed the function of portoló, guiding the slings to the ship's holds. 

Inside, other stevedores manually packed the sacks, work that required strength and technique.