MERCHANTS AND COMMERCE IN ASIA AND THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE OVER THE LONG 18TH CENTURY十八世紀的亞洲商人、商業和葡萄牙帝國
This article preliminarily examines the role of Portuguese merchants in Asian trade and in the Portuguese Empire throughout the "long eighteenth century" (c. 1684–c. 1835), with a privileged focus on Macau as both locality and community. The central argument maintains that the relevance of Macau and...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
April 2010
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40034/3542 |
| Summary: | This article preliminarily examines the role of Portuguese merchants in Asian trade and in the Portuguese Empire throughout the "long eighteenth century" (c. 1684–c. 1835), with a privileged focus on Macau as both locality and community. The central argument maintains that the relevance of Macau and the Canton/Guangdong market must be understood through the identities, networks, and practices of merchants engaged in transport, navigation, "chandelling," investment, financing, and commercial intermediation—activities anchored both in the colony and in connections that articulated metropolitan centers (Lisbon), Atlantic peripheries (Bahia and Rio de Janeiro), and other Asian entrepôts of the Estado da Índia. Methodologically, the text combines an approach influenced by the Annales School—attentive to commercial structures, networks, and everyday life—with an analysis of supply and commodity chains, integrating social, cultural, and economic dimensions. The study draws on Portuguese and European archival sources, as well as secondary documentation and collections located in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. As findings, the article proposes to rebalance a historiography often centered on rival merchants and companies, demonstrating how Luso-Asian networks contributed to the maintenance, development, and expansion of the maritime circuits that sustained the regional economy and the global integration of Chinese trade. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |