Trade networks of the Portuguese Empire
Objectives
To analyse the evolution of the trade networks of the Portuguese Empire in the 15th-18th centuries. The perspective used gives priority to the cohesion and interaction of the major imperial spaces, Asia and the Atlantic, and to components such as the State of India and Brazil, for instance, to see how the trade networks between the centres and the peripheries were established and hierarchised and how they operated. These trade networks will also be studied in view of their legal nature, participants, agents and products traded, to establish links and comparisons within the Portuguese Empire and other imperial spaces of the Early Modern Age. Students will analyse to what extent the Portuguese trade networks continue to be Mediterranean models and how they innovate in terms of the spaces, volume and nature of the products sold in Africa, Asia and America, prefiguring a “first globalisation”.
General characterization
Code
722051342
Credits
10.0
Responsible teacher
Susana Margarida Munch Miranda
Hours
Weekly - 3
Total - 280
Teaching language
Portuguese
Prerequisites
N/A
Bibliography
- Alencastro, Luís Felipe de, O trato dos viventes. Formação do Brasil no Atlântico Sul. Séculos XVI e XVII, (2.ª edição), Rio de Janeiro, Companhia das Letras, 2000.
- Bethencourt, Francisco e Ramada Curto, Diogo [Eds.], Portuguese Oceanic Expansion, 1400-1800, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- Boyajian, James C., Portuguese Trade in Asia under the Habsburgs, 1580-1640, Baltimore/ Londres, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
- Godinho, Vitorino Magalhães, Os descobrimentos e a economia mundial, (2.ª edição), 4 vols., Lisboa, Editorial Presença, 1981-1982.
- Subrahmanyam, Sanjay e Thomaz, Luís Filipe, “Evolution of empire: The Portuguese in the Indian Ocean during the sixteenth century”, in The Political Economy of Merchant Empires. State Power and World Trade 1350-1750, editado por James D. Tracy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. 298-331
Teaching method
This curricular unit will be taught via asynchronous e-learning supported by the Moodle platform. The curricular unit will be given using e-books produced specifically for this purpose, and podcasts. Teaching is based on collaborative learning – for instance, encouraging participation in peer forums. There will be continuous assessment of individual works presented during the period when the various topics are being taught, through participation in peer forums and a final research project on a theme and according to a working plan, which will be discussed in advance and agreed during the teaching period. It is mandatory that the paper's discussion with the teacher in a presencial session or by videoconference (Moodle plattaform or any other secure connection).
Evaluation method
Continuous assessment - There will be continuous assessment of individual works presented during the period when the various topics are being taught, through participation in peer forums and a final research project(100%)
Subject matter
I. Network typologies: structural and complementary; sea and land; centres and peripheries; hierarchy and
II. Nature: official, private and informal.
III. Participants and agents: Portuguese, foreign and local; the Crown, tenants and private individuals.
IV. Products: basic, raw materials, manpower and luxury.
V. Evolution: 1415-1498, continuity and innovation in the construction of the Atlantic world; 1498-1620, the Indian Ocean and Asian spaces, 1620-ca.1750, refocusing on the Atlantic, ca.1750-1808 the rise of Brazil.