Portuguese and Amsterdam Sephardic Merchants in the Tobacco Trade

Tierra Firme and Hispaniola in the Early Seventeenth Century

By (author) Yda Schreuder

Publication date:

17 January 2023

Publisher

Anthem Press

Dimensions:

229x153mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781785278280

The book surveys the role of Portuguese and Sephardic merchants in the contraband tobacco trade in the late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Atlantic world. It offers a historical-geographic perspective linking Amsterdam as an emerging staple market to a network of merchants of the “Portuguese Nation,” examining the illicit trade in the context of rivalry between Spain and the Dutch Republic during the Eighty Years’ War.

List of Figures; Preface; Portuguese and Amsterdam Sephardic Merchants in the Tobacco Trade in the Early Seventeenth Century; The Contraband Tobacco Trade with Spanish America: Tierra Firme and Hispaniol; Portuguese Merchants and the Tobacco Trade with Tierra Firme; Portuguese Merchants and the Tobacco Trade with Hispaniola; Conclusion; Bibliographic Notes; Index

“In the seventeenth century, Amsterdam became one of the world’s chief tobacco markets. Yda Schreuder reveals the key role played in this development by Portuguese Jews. These recent immigrants, who collaborated with fellow merchants in the Iberian Peninsula, obtained much of their tobacco through smuggling in Spanish America” —Wim Klooster, Robert H. and Virginia N. Scotland Endowed Chair in History and International Relations, Department of History, Clark University, USA.