Abstract

CRUZ, Miguel Dantas da. The diversification of Portugal's commercial relations in the late eighteenth century: between discourse and praxis. e-JPH [online]. 2012, vol.10, n.1, pp.37-61. ISSN 1645-6432.

The diversification of trading partners marked the context of Portugal’s economic relations with the outside world in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This had also been a frequent argument put forward in the organized discourse of Portuguese economic thought throughout the eighteenth century. Without claiming to be exhaustive, this article examines the testimonies of some of the eighteenth-century authors who reflected at greater length on the advantages of diversifying trading partners. After this, an analysis is made of some of the more distinctive manifestations of this experience, essentially related to the marked changes that took place in the shipping sector and the readjustments in the economic importance of trading partners.

Keywords : diversification of trading partners; foreign trade; shipping; economic thought; port of Lisbon; Baltic.

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