Abysmal differences

Afonso Almeida Brandão"

Rui Nabeiro, the humanist businessman who recently left us, rightly received a wide range of praise from all sectors of Portuguese society for his work, in a rare example of recognition for his contribution to improving the lives of many Portuguese people and the country's economy. Praise also came from sectors of the Left, who normally go out of their way to demonise businessmen and the profits they generate in their companies, as is currently happening with the heirs of Belmiro de Azevedo and Soares dos Santos, who also left us not long ago. Rui Nabeiro had a very difficult start in life and it was through an activity that was illegal at the time that he made enough profits to create his first company. This is not an isolated case; in the history of the economy there are many examples of entrepreneurs who started out in activities of dubious legality and who went on to create empires. All the work that Rui Nabeiro left to the country, both business and social, would not have been possible without the profits from his companies and his entrepreneurial quality. Fortunately, today, all over the world, particularly in the United States, there are entrepreneurs who, having created large companies and obtained huge profits, dedicate themselves to investing their enormous fortunes in a wide range of social objectives, as is the case, for example, with Bill Gates. Other entrepreneurs do not do this and invest their time and money in different objectives, such as creating new ideas, new products and new technologies, which make it possible for us to live longer and in better conditions today. They all do this with the profits generated by their companies. For some years I had as a friend a businessman linked to various areas, including the media, called Aníbal Henriques Abrantes, who left Lisbon, where he was born, to go and live in Marinha Grande. He was a football player and liked to travel, which he did frequently before and after the 1939 war. In Paris and London, he came into contact with the first products made from plastic and took advantage of his brother's existing company, which produced moulds for glass, to make his first moulds for compressing and injecting this new material, but not only that. During his many travels, he began to bring to Portugal the first products made from plastic that were appearing in Paris and London, to convince Portuguese entrepreneurs who manufactured these same products in other materials to change. He went to Guimarães to the company “Ribeirinhos”, which produced bone combs, and to Aveiro to the company “Luso Celulóide”, which produced toys, as well as to many other entrepreneurs who did not travel, inviting them to enter the new world of plastics well in advance and to buy his moulds. Fortunately, he did even more, transforming into an industry what throughout the world was a craft that produced metal stamping tools through artisan artists, who, with the help of an apprentice/assistant, carried out all the necessary operations alone. Since there were no such craftsmen in Portugal, Aníbal Abrantes began the division of labour in the sector by creating specialist workers, in what was the first industrial company in the world dedicated to producing moulds. Furthermore, he began exporting these moulds through what was already the largest mould-producing company in the world with 350 specialists, while in the United States of America and Germany these companies had no more than thirty craftsmen, whose training took twenty years. During his lifetime, through his love of travelling, Aníbal Abrantes gave rise to two truly Portuguese industries: plastics and moulds. In the process, he transformed the economy of Marinha Grande and contributed to raising the standard of living of the entire region through the competition created by the new industry and the increase in wages. Perhaps because he never had any other interests and was merely an innovator, Aníbal Abrantes died without the public recognition he deserved, not even in the land he adopted as his own. He was an exceptional man and my friend for twenty-five years and I remember him with grateful longing for what he left us. I was a journalist for a weekly newspaper that he ran for years, and of which he was the owner, called A FOICE, in Marinha Grande. I will remember the instructive conversations I had with Rui Nabeiro on trips to promote our travels around the world — he as a businessman, I as a journalist. Fortunately, he received the recognition he deserved. This text is also about profit, without which there is no economic growth, no better wages and no social justice. It was profits that allowed Rui Nabeiro to carry out his remarkable social work and Aníbal Abrantes to acquire the machines and technologies that helped to change Portuguese industry. The demonisation of profit that is currently being carried out in Portugal represents, beyond all considerations, a sure passport to poverty. With the irony that more than 90% of Portuguese companies are very small and the majority do not generate profits or export, and wages are naturally low, even for the vast majority of their entrepreneurs. This is the wrong economic model, because the natural objective of companies is to grow and generate profits, as Rui Nabeiro did. As is also clear, the main problem in our economy today is the excess of small companies that do not grow and do not generate profits, at least not as many as those created by corruption and “party cronyism”. This is the wrong economic model, which survives through a Justice system that is asleep and the political protection given to businessmen who are friends of the Regime and Political Parties, in addition to supporting Political Commentators of the “nonsense” in office. And this sad reality makes me cite the example of Mozambique, in the worst possible sense... It turns out that the companies Sonae and Jerónimo Martins (in Lisbon) and SOCAJU and TDM (in Nacala and Maputo) should be proud of all Portuguese and Mozambicans to receive the greatest praise from the political powers of both countries for making profits, growing, diversifying and using the most modern technologies to compete successfully in the world. Unfortunately, the political powers (both there and here) prefer to protect the oligopolies of some companies, as is the case of Telecommunications, companies that can with impunity increase prices, which are already much higher than the average prices charged in the European Union. It is the usual cronyism that governs us (or misgoverns us, whether there or among us), that is, whether in Portugal or among us, in Mozambique! Profits are the lifeblood of the economy, profits that allow companies that were born small to generate profits and grow. Unfortunately, in Portugal and Mozambique too, we know from experience that most companies are too small, do not generate profits and do not grow, in addition to the companies managed by the State that also do not generate profits and do not grow, but that is another story. And once again I would like to make the comparison with what happens in Mozambique, because it is without taking or adding anything. Does anyone doubt it?

2025/12/3