The English Nation of Lisbon and the Portuguese Jews of London: agents, networks and business in the first half of the eigh teenth century

Abstract

As consequence of the consolidation of the Anglo-Portuguese alliance after the Methuen Treaty and the War of the Spanish Succession, the English Nation settled in Lisbon grew in importance, status and number. The cosmopolitanism of the city contrasted with a strong inquisitorial repression felt over the first decades of the eighteenth century, which undermined Lisbon’s commercial elite. Fleeing the threat of the Inquisition, many New Christian merchants left Portugal and moved to England. However, their links with Portugal were not broken, particularly their trade connections. Then, several English commercial firms settled in Lisbon worked as agents of Portuguese Jewish traders living in London. In this paper we will analyse two case-studies: the English businessmen William Buller and Arthur Stern and their role as agents of Portuguese Jews settled in London, as Gabriel Lopes Pinheiro, José da Costa Vila Real or the families Mendes da Costa and Lopes Pereira/Aguilar. Our challenge is to rethink the trade relations between communities culturally, ethnically and socially different, revealing how porous these boundaries could be, inclusively in high risk enterprises which required high trust.