“Como se hace en Indias de Castilla”. El cacao entre la Amazonía portuguesa y las Indias de Castilla (siglos XVII y XVIII)

Abstract

The objective of this article is to study the reasons behind the Portuguese Crown’s decision to invest in the cultivation of Cocoa in its northernmost American possessions. The main argument is that Portugal’s growing interest in cocoa was the result of related factors, which include what we could call the Portuguese world’s Castilian “heritage”, the economic circumstances of cocoa production and commerce in the Hispanic world and the “Atlantization” of the Portuguese conquests.