“Portuguese and Amsterdam Sephardic Retailers within the Tobacco Commerce” – Repeating Islands


Portuguese and Amsterdam Sephardic Retailers within the Tobacco Commerce: Tierra Firme and Hispaniola within the Early Seventeenth Century (Anthem Press, January 2023) focuses on the contraband commerce with Tierra Firme and Hispaniola within the early seventeenth century by Portuguese and Sephardic retailers.

Description (Anthem Press): Portuguese and Amsterdam Sephardic Retailers within the Tobacco Commerce is a historical past of the function of Portuguese and Sephardic retailers within the tobacco trade and commerce of Amsterdam. It focuses on the contraband commerce with Tierra Firme and Hispaniola within the early seventeenth century as documented within the Engel Sluiter Historic Paperwork Assortment. 

The Engel Sluiter Historic Paperwork Assortment is a novel archival assortment for the aim of analysis on the territorial battle between the Spanish Habsburg Empire and the Dutch Republic within the context of the Eighty Years’ Battle (1568–1648). Sluiter collected paperwork from archives world wide with a give attention to commerce and monetary data which doc the rise to industrial prominence of the Dutch Republic, the intricacies of Spanish and Portuguese commerce and navigation, and the Contaduria which report revenues and expenditures of the Spanish Crown together with import and export duties. The paperwork within the assortment relate primarily to Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese commerce affairs in Europe and Spanish and Portuguese abroad territories however embody references to English and French accounts of funds to Spain as effectively. The vast majority of the paperwork are in Spanish, transcribed, translated in English, and supplied with notes by Engel Sluiter himself. The Caribbean Assortment, together with Tierra Firme and Hispaniola, incorporates paperwork on Dutch mercantile commerce practices – largely smuggling as Spain and the Dutch Republic had been at battle with one another – and Spanish commerce laws and efforts to dam overseas entry to commerce items. We thus be taught an amazing deal about foreigners concerned in unlawful commerce wherein seize, corruption and bribery performed an vital function specifically with respect to the tobacco commerce which was extremely regulated below Spanish rule. 

Generally, when overseas vessels had been captured and hauled into port, mariners or service provider smugglers had been reported by title and port of origin and voyage particulars had been recorded. We thus acquire perception into the specifics of the retailers and their buying and selling networks in addition to the products being smuggled. Concern about tobacco smuggling is referred to in a number of of the stories and resulted in plans to ban tobacco cultivation or enable cultivation with royal permission solely. In a number of situations suggestions had been made to undermine smuggling actions in particular coastal areas the place tobacco cultivation occurred and the place frequent contacts had been made between Dutch mariners and retailers and coastal populations together with Amerindians, Creoles, runaway Blacks, and “Portuguese” current in coastal areas. Spanish paperwork show a priority about “Portuguese” in coastal areas as they had been related to Conversos, New Christians who typically served as go-between in commerce and finance within the Spanish Habsburg Empire. The identical group was typically regarded as in touch with English, French and Dutch smugglers, and the data recommend that Portuguese retailers had been engaged in commerce with Bayonne, London and Amsterdam by service provider networks that had been expanded and prolonged all through the Atlantic world. 

Yda Schreuder is Professor Emerita of Geography on the College of Delaware and Analysis Affiliate on the Hagley Museum and Library, USA. She beforehand printed a monograph on Amsterdam’s Sephardic retailers and the Atlantic sugar commerce within the seventeenth century.

For extra data, see https://anthempress.com/portuguese-and-amsterdam-sephardic-merchants-in-the-tobacco-trade-pdf



Source_link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

%d bloggers like this: