FINANCIAL CAPITAL AND LAND CONTROL: NEW RENTIERS ON THE BRAZILIAN AGRICULTURAL FRONTIER/ Capital financeiro e controle de terras: a monopolização neorrentística da terra/ Capital financiero y control de la tierra: la monopolización neorentista de la tierra

Résumé

Although not new to capitalism, Brazil experienced a dizzying increase in the Initial Public Offering (IPO) between 2004 and 2008. In the case of agribusiness, 18 companies made IPOs in this short period. Who are these companies? What were the objectives with the IPO? What are their drivers? What is the relationship between these companies and global land grabbing? These are some of the questions that this article seeks to answer by analyzing, more specifically, two companies that are pioneers in open stock capital in their respective areas: one linked to agricultural grain production and the other specialized in the land real estate market. These examples allow us to analyze the transformation of land into a financial asset, with the unprecedented integration between financial capital and land ownership, a sine qua non characteristic of the land grabbing process. Instead of a barrier to capital inflows, as the classic theory of ground rent points out, the examples demonstrate how land can be used as fictitious capital, with serious social and environmental impacts in areas of modern agricultural expansion in Brazil.