Search

Presents updates on meetings and conventions about sociology and religion in Portugal and the U.S. as of December 1958. Theme of the 7th congress of the International Catholic Child Bureau; Paper presented by Father William Gibbons at the 1958 American Sociological Society convention; Participation of Mother Patricia Barrett in the 1958 Seminar on Religion in a Free Society.

It is now well recognized that in the century before 1670 English traders to the Mediterranean enjoyed remarkable success selling increasing quantities of textiles, with a growing proportion completely finished, downgrading Turkey and Italy to the position of raw material suppliers, and taking over a large part of the Mediterranean carrying trade. It is also clear that after 1700 it was the Mediterranean trade, especially that with Spain and Portugal, which redeemed England's very modest trading performance with Europe. The chief interest of the activities of businessman John Oldbury and his group of business associates is that they date from the generation, which separates these two periods and therefore shed some light on the main commodity trades in Anglo-Iberian commerce in the last thirty years of the seventeenth century. Spain and Portugal were two agricultural countries ruling large colonial empires, and yet lacking sufficient manufacturing capacity even to begin to meet metropolitan demands. The success of English textiles in the area is to be accounted for by the virtually total default of indigenous industry. All English exports were of central, if not crucial, importance to the receiving economies and their dependent colonies, and it was this basic fact, which underlay England's dominant position. Iberian trade to England, on the other hand, was not equally indispensable.

Most writers on mercantilism have neglected Portugal, and its colonial policy has attracted surprisingly little research. The destruction of a large mass of colonial papers in the Torte do Tombo Archives by the earthquake and ensuing fire on November 1, 1755, and the silence of the early chroniclers on such prosaic matters as trade and navigation have deterred many scholars interested in the Portuguese colonial system and seriously handicapped those who have persevered. Consequently, inadequate knowledge may explain the tendency to dismiss the Portuguese empire with the derogatory conclusions that it consisted only of a chain of forts and trading stations, developed no new institutions, set no important precedents, and made no significant contributions to colonial theory. Although precise information and many details are lacking, it is known that Portugal discovered the all-water route to the East Indies, established the first contacts with the natives, forged a colossal empire, exclusively controlled the East India trade for almost a century, solved a host of problems before any rival appeared on the scene, and smoothed the paths of Holland, England, and France to trade and empire in the East.

Presents the books on Portugal economic conditions. "Regiôes homogéneas no continente portuguê," by Calda E. De C. and "Significado e limitacô teóricas da apreciacão dos projectors económicos," by Da Costa André.

This article discusses the use of copper sheathing to protect the hulls of wooden ships from the ravages of the worm and the encrustations of weeds and barnacles in the eighteenth century. Though there are a few references to instances of sheathing with copper or its alloys before the middle of the eighteenth century, the overwhelming mass of references to sheathing up to that time are to sheathing with wood, a doubling of the outside planking of the ship below the waterline. The limited efficiency of wooden sheathing made it inevitable that other materials would be tried. Lead sheathing appears to have been known to the Romans, and was revived in the sixteenth century in Spain and Portugal, and used experimentally by this country on at least one occasion. Most works on the subject state that the first beginnings of copper sheathing date from the 1760's, but as early as 1708 the Navy was being approached by Charles Parry and others who had recently applied for a patent for sheathing ships with copper which without any hindrance to their sailing, will preserve them from worms and barnacles in their voyages to the East and West Indies, and prevent all occasions of covering and repairing them.

The article examines the educational levels of industrial elites and businessmen in Portugal. The statistical data that presents the level of education in Portugal shows that just 37% of the university students obtained some degree, 11% did not finish a program, 28% have secondary education and less than 10% completed their primary education. The percentage of lawyers within the industrial elite is small in the country, as is that of economists, although it is likely that a large portion of the 30% obtaining non-technical degrees may have obtained their degrees in economics or in any of the various courses in administration. It appears that, at least in Portugal, several years will yet be necessary for the establishment of a graduate school of business administration that will furnish advanced schooling in that field, although in 1965 the American Embassy in Lisbon was attempting to stir up interest in such a project. The given statistical data furnishes an adequate means of showing how the opportunity to enter the industrial elite varies in terms of educational level. The data regarding urban males with some schooling show that their opportunities to enter the elite are not as promising as those of urban and rural males considered together. In Portugal as in Spain, the educational level of the industrial elite of giant enterprises is very high and certainly can be compared favorably, in the case of Spain, with that of American industrialists.

Examines the slave trade of Portugal from Angola. Contribution of Philip Curtin in the study of Atlantic slave trade; Aspects of slave trade that remain unknown to researchers; Reason for selecting Angola for the study.

The article examines certain patterns of conflict in Montemor, a peasant community in Portugal, in order to gain insight into certain aspects of the dynamics of the relationship between narrower and broader levels of a differentiated large-scale society. Distinctiveness between parishes was determined through such functions as tax collecting and local elections, as well as in terms of defining participants in common enterprises. Agents of the urban bureaucracies influenced the life of parish inhabitants. Several forms of conflict reaction observed in the parish are described.