Just like Tiro and Cartago: free and open port and the ports and the Portuguese Empire political economy in a global perspective (1808-1824)

Abstract

The 1808 declaration of free ports (portos livres) was a watershed moment in the history of the Portuguese Empire’s economic policy. Allowing foreign merchants to trade freely in Brazilian ports radically altered trade policies used for centuries. This article aims to reassess the conception and enactment of Portuguese trade policies in the context of the international turmoil that led to the collapse of the Iberian empires in the Atlantic world. The paper looks into the idea of free ports, a long-standing institution that supposedly emerged in the 16th century and would achieve worldwide implementation in the coming centuries. The article focuses on the attempts made in Lisbon to create a free port in the 1780s. A failed idea at that time, it came back once again in the 1820s when scholars praised the free ports as the solution for reorganizing imperial trade. Brazilian ports and Lisbon could mimic Tire and Carthage to transform the former imperial capital into a global commercial hub.