A Nation upon the Ocean Sea Quotes

“The Lima merchant's correspondent in Mexico City was Simon Vaez de Sevilla.16 Vaez de Sevilla had associates in Manila (who provided him with Asian commodities), Oaxaca (who provided him with cochineal), and Guatemala (who provided him with cacao and tobacco).17 All these goods were thus made available to the Lima merchant and were regularly sent down to Peru along the Pacific route or through Cartagena de Indias. Bautista Perez also depended on a number of suppliers-Diego Rodriguez de Lisboa, Enrique de Andrade, and Agustin Perez-in Lisbon and Seville to send him a range of European goods for sale in Lima and throughout Peru. Each of these suppliers had his own network of associates and correspondents on whom he, in turn, relied for provisioning. Given their location in what were two of the great European entrepots of the time, these Lisbon- and Seville-based merchants were often able to purchase on the spot the goods requested by Bautista Perez. They simply had to make the necessary arrangements with local brokers and merchants who specialized in bringing textiles and manufactured goods from the wider European economy (see Figure 4.1).18”
― Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, A Nation upon the Ocean Sea: Portugal's Atlantic Diaspora and the Crisis of the Spanish Empire, 1492-1640

“The Castilian officials had legitimate grounds for concern about the possible actions of a Portuguese fifth column. As early as May 1641, Portuguese warships leagued with the English and began to press against the Spanish possessions in the Caribbean and along the Pacific coast.4 In”
― Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, A Nation upon the Ocean Sea: Portugal's Atlantic Diaspora and the Crisis of the Spanish Empire, 1492-1640

“The overall structure of the Portuguese trading networks was made of numerous individual networks, each organized around a merchant house, whose
activities were limited to a set of markets within a circumscribed area of the Atlantic. Each of these smaller networks overlapped with its neighbors, one network fusing into another across the full expanse of the European overseas economy.”
― Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, A Nation upon the Ocean Sea: Portugal's Atlantic Diaspora and the Crisis of the Spanish Empire, 1492-1640