"Pioneers of Globalization -- Why the Portuguese surprised the World", de Jorge Nascimento Rodrigues e Tessaleno Devezas

«Globalization is a product of the modern world. Although among economists there is no common overarching opinion in relation to the development of economic globalization, recent studies show three basic waves in the last five and a half centuries.

The first wave was a consequence of the voyages across the oceans, initiated by the Portuguese at the beginning of the 15th century. It is only after the discoveries they made that the term «international commerce» begins to make sense – it became truly global involving four continents. Leo Huberman, in his famous Man’s Worldly Goods, considers this period a real “commercial revolution”, when trade took on a dimension that had not existed during the Mongolian Empire or the golden Mediterranean age with the Italian maritime republics.

The elaboration of an evolving portfolio of commodities transformed Portugal, the “small peripheral rectangle of Europe,” as a main focus point. First, in Lagos, with the establishment of the House of Guinea by Prince Henrique, which assisted the infamous boom of slave trade, and later on, with the appearance of the new golden route in the Atlantic Ocean. The cultivation of sugar cane in Madeira, from 1452, would also bring a new type of business.

Later, King João II decided to move the House of Commerce to Lisbon, naming it the House of Mina. After Vasco da Gama’s return from India, spices entered through the Tejo river and Portugal assisted in the birth of the House of India, set in Ribeira Palace, during the reign of King Manuel I. In 1503, the “Baixa Lisboeta” became the center of the European pepper trade.»

[Cont.]