Igor’s Reviews > The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415 - 1825 > Status Update

"prejudices were not confined to Christendom or to the Middle Ages. In Catholic Portugal, as in Confucian and in Communist China and in Marxist Russia, the merchant was regarded as a parasitic and profiteering middle­ man, resolved to enrich himself at the expense of his fellow-men."

"The prejudice against ‘New’ Christians also had a long life in the municipal administration. King Manuel, as we have seen, despite his forcible conversion of the Jews in 1497, subsequendy did his best to integrate these wretched converts into Portuguese society by forbidding all discrimination against them."

Interesting.

"It must, however, be emphasised that the social ascent of the Negro, which Gilberto Freyre claims was fostered in Brazil, was, on the contrary, deliberately retarded in that colony by the maintenance of a rigid colour-bar on full-blooded Negroes during the whole of the colonial period, in so far as municipal office-holding was concerned."

"As an engine of persecution, the Portuguese Inquisition was regarded as being more efficient and more cruel than the notorious Spanish Inquisition by those of its victims who had experienced the rigours of both these infamous institutions."

As a descendant from many Portuguese families, having muself tested my dna and found some percentange of jewish blood, it is something sad to deal with this fact mentioned.

"Admittedly the planters were partly responsible for their own difficulties, owing to the extravagant and seigneurial way of life which they affected. Moreover, they nearly all bought their slaves and equipment on long-term credit at high rates of interest from their correspondents and merchants in the seaports, to whom they were usually heavily indebted."

Good point.

Very good!

Wow!

"Deepening conservatism, deepening reluctance to adjust to a changing world became the hallmark of the Portuguese. The Spanish empire may have grown arthritic, but the Portuguese possessed the rigidity of a corpse."