The ordinance was named after the then Italian Foreign Affairs Minister, Giulio Prinetti, and approved based on a report denouncing the situations experienced by immigrants on coffee plantations, especially in the post-abolition period.
The flow of African slaves was replaced by an influx of Italian workers desperate to get rich quickly, turning shipping companies into promoters of a new model of human traffic.
The settlers were unable to obtain legal protection against these abuses by the farmers, who also exploited them economically, imposing penalties for frivolous reasons, confiscating their produce and falsifying weights and measures, as well as withholding their wages.
[1][4] From then on, Brazil was no longer an attractive destination for immigrants from Italy; the state of São Paulo suffered the most from this decision, leading to difficulties in finding workers.
The situation got worse when, in the early years of the 20th century, there was a major coffee crisis, which affected the local economy, causing not only the flow of migrants to fall, but also the departure of thousands of immigrants from Brazil.