A contractor empire : public-private partnerships and overseas expansion in Habsburg Portugal (1580-1640)

Doctoral Thesis

A Contractor Empire looks at government contracting in Portugal and its overseas empire during the so called Iberian ‘Union of the Crowns’ (1580-1640). It places 17th century Portugal at the centre of the latest historiographic debates on the interplay between business oriented groups and state formation during the early modern period. This dissertation clarifies why and to what extent the Portuguese Crown underwrote government contracts with business firms to handle tasks of public utility. On the other hand, it looks at the ethos and praxis of what was simultaneously an effective financial and administrative tool (for the state) and a compelling economic, social and political investment (for private businessmen).
I argue that a major distinctive feature of the Portuguese contractor state was the multitude of public-private partnerships pertaining to the overseas offshoots. It is also emphasized how contracts did not always involve military logistics, as the secondary...Show moreA Contractor Empire looks at government contracting in Portugal and its overseas empire during the so called Iberian ‘Union of the Crowns’ (1580-1640). It places 17th century Portugal at the centre of the latest historiographic debates on the interplay between business oriented groups and state formation during the early modern period. This dissertation clarifies why and to what extent the Portuguese Crown underwrote government contracts with business firms to handle tasks of public utility. On the other hand, it looks at the ethos and praxis of what was simultaneously an effective financial and administrative tool (for the state) and a compelling economic, social and political investment (for private businessmen).
I argue that a major distinctive feature of the Portuguese contractor state was the multitude of public-private partnerships pertaining to the overseas offshoots. It is also emphasized how contracts did not always involve military logistics, as the secondary literature assumes. Among these other tasks were tax-farming and the outsourcing of royal monopolies over colonial commodities. In addition to considering the needs of the Crown and the terms and conditions of various public contracts, public-private partnerships are also analysed from the vantage point of their recipients. Light is shed on how entrepreneurs and partnerships met their obligations to the state and secured a compelling return on their investment, but also on the reasons why they took part in these potentially lucrative but equally risky endeavours.
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Public-private partnership

Contractor state

Early-Modern overseas empire