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The aim of this article is to challenge the notion that perfect property rights are inseparable from modern economic growth. It sets out to unravel the relationship between coffee plantations, emphyteutic contracts, and slavery, in order to explain the great economic dynamism of Brazil's Vale do Paraíba region during the 19th century. It thereby demonstrates how instruments considered to be archaic were by no means an obstacle to growth, but rather helped the dominant class to integrate the capitalist world market and generate significant export-driven economic growth. It draws on primary sources from the official records on foreiros kept by the large Fazenda de Santa Cruz landed estate, in the Brazilian province of Rio de Janeiro.