If the importance of Portuguese merchants in the Spanish Empire is well known to scholars of early Spanish America, nonetheless their economic activities, complex and wide-ranging trade and kin networks, and family and household structure have not been examined systematically. Until the appearance of this relatively short but highly informative and suggestive volume by Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, the Portuguese for the most part remained shadowy and marginal figures in the Spanish Empire. This book goes far toward filling the gaps in our understanding of the role and impact of the Portuguese. While the demise of the Portuguese merchants at the hands of the Inquisition that targeted them as Spanish-Portuguese relations began to fray in the 1630s has received attention from such scholars as Alfonso Quiroz, the larger presence and experience of the Portuguese “Nation” in the Spanish Empire has not. Although the traditional separation of the histories of Spain and Portugal...

You do not currently have access to this content.