Money and Empire: the Portuguese monetary system and the colonial economy in the seventeenth century

• Grant number: 15/22557-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2016
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Pedro Luis Puntoni
• Grantee: Pedro Luis Puntoni
• Host Investigator: Nuno Goncalo Pimenta de Freitas Monteiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Abstract

In the seventeenth century, the monetary phenomenon was central to understanding the economy. In its doctrinal and theoretical dimension, it was an essential part of the nascent political economy questioning. Notably, in the Iberian World, where the flow of American metals required a position on their impact on commercial and productive activities, and articulation with overseas trade and the management of colonial economies. In addition, we must understand the practical dimension of this monetary phenomenon, resulting from actions on the currency and the attempts at manipulating its value, that guided the political projects and interventions in this same economic world. This Project aims to investigate the doctrines and ideas about the monetary phenomenon, breeding throughout the seventeenth century, going through the intellectual spaces of the Old Regime (on the peninsula and overseas), with special focus on the Portuguese Empire. On the other hand, this Project also seeks to understand how this reflection space is being shaped and, at the same time, it is directly implicated in the concrete handling policies and management of the Empire economy. To accomplish this, the research should be based on seventeenth-century literature on the currency and, in particular, policies and wills recommendations, as well as in legislation and currency practices.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

PEDRO PUNTONI. DA LIBRA AO REAL: SOBRE A FORMAÇÃO DO SISTEMA MONETÁRIO PORTUGUÊS (1185-1580). Revista de História, n. 178, 2019-03-25. (15/22557-2)

PEDRO PUNTONI. Uma pax monetaria? Impasses do sistema monetário português no tempo dos Filipes (1580-1640). Topoi (Rio de Janeiro), v. 21, n. 43, p. 216-236, 2020-04-17. (15/22557-2)