Narratives of exploitation and resistance: European immigration, business, and accounting on Ibicaba farm in the 19th century

This paper examines how business practices reinforce and continue imperial colonial power relations and how counter-narratives can challenge these practices. Addressing a gap in business historiography, it analyses how ‘free’ European immigrant labour was subject to systemic economic coercion legitimised through accounting. A critical historiographical narrative analyses Thomaz Davatz’s memoirs alongside historical ledgers from Ibicaba farm. The novel lens combines concepts of coloniality of power and counter-accounting, framing accounting as a site of power and resistance. A mechanism of control, the accounting recorded systems of debt and surveillance mirror slavery-era domination. Davatz’s testimony exposes manipulative accounting practices, lack of transparency, and a coercive labour system masked by contracts and numbers; this counter-accounting contests the legitimacy of official representations. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of coloniality, power, and forms of resistance within Latin America. It highlights the importance of transparency and accountability for modern forms of migrant labour governance.