Power and Corruption in the Early Modern Portuguese World

Abstract

This book is a very readable historical narrative of the Portuguese Empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The author has effectively rewritten his original thesis on the Portuguese overseas board (Conselho Ultramarino) into an overview that accounts for the several centers of power in the Portuguese Empire. The book is clearly inspired by classic works by Charles Boxer and A. J. Russel Wood that sought to provide a holistic view of how Portugal managed its imperial possessions during the early modern period. It nicely complements a volume recently published by Gabriel Paquette that deals with the Portuguese Empire in the late eighteenth century through the mid-nineteenth century.Myrup’s book has many highlights, including his ability to weave together personal narratives to illustrate larger points about the Portuguese Empire. Chapter 1 focuses on the creation of the Conselho Ultramarino through the personal trajectory of his first president, Jorge de Mascarenhas; chapter 2 provides an insightful analysis of the internal dynamics of the Conselho Ultramarino as well as its global ramifications; chapter 3 shifts away from Europe toward the fringes of Portuguese Brazil by reconstructing the trajectory of Antonio Raposo Tavares, a bandeirante whose three-year journey into the heart of South America helped consolidate the Portuguese grip in the region. Chapter 4 looks through the career of Rodrigo Cesar de Menezes, a member of a prestigious noble family whose service on behalf of the Portuguese Crown stretched throughout all sections of the empire, including Africa. Chapter 5 focuses on Macau to analyze the relationship between Portugal and Spain during the Iberian union. Chapter 6 provides the most effective demonstration of the role of social networks in cross-cultural, political, and economic ties by teasing out a crime that occurred in Macau in the mid-eighteenth century.As Myrup skillfully demonstrates, the Portuguese Empire hinged not only on formal structures but also on informal dynamics built around what he calls social networks. Myrup is to be praised for integrating Asia into his narrative, but the fact that Africa is conspicuously absent stands out as a missed opportunity. Africa was the first region touched by the Portuguese and the last pillar of the Portuguese Empire in the twentieth century. For example, Myrup devotes significant attention to Salvador Correia de Sá, the Portuguese military leader responsible for the retaking of Angola from the Dutch in the seventeenth century, but he shies away from discussing the place of Angola in the Portuguese South Atlantic. Nor does he take advantage of his otherwise insightful analysis of bandeirantes in Brazil to fully grapple with similar phenomena in Africa.Myrup’s framing of the Portuguese Empire centers on the power of elites, with minimal attention devoted to the vast majority of free and unfree commoners that the Portuguese ruled in their vast and sprawling global empire. In this sense, the social networks that interest Myrup mostly involve governors, merchants, nobles, high-end clergymen, and state structures. This focus raises several central questions: How did social networks connect elite members to non-elite groups in the Portuguese Empire? How did they pave the way for trans-imperial ties? In which ways were they conducive to the intense cross-cultural exchanges that undergirded the Portuguese Empire in Africa, Brazil, and Asia?