At the dawn of modernity, the Portuguese discoveries influenced German interest in Portugal and the Portuguese empire like no other contemporaneous event.
Following the Portuguese expansion, Luso-German contacts gradually increased, reaching their peak in the first two decades of the 16th century. This phase roughly coincides with the reign of King Manuel I, who decisively contributed to the intensification of the economic relations with the merchant-bankers of Nuremberg and Augsburg, attracting them with very favourable privileges leading to the establishment of several German companies in Lisbon and to the direct participation of their representatives in several voyages to India.
The Welsers, the Fuggers and other large Upper German merchant-houses played a key role as suppliers of copper and silver, two metals that were indispensable for purchasing goods in the Portuguese overseas territories. Thus, the German merchant-bankers temporarily became the most important trading partners of the Portuguese Crown.
Os mercadores-banqueiros alemães e a Expansão Portuguesa no reinado de D. Manuel I, Jürgen Pohle (aut.), Lisboa: CHAM, 2017, 303p., (CHAM eBooks, 4).
ISBN
9789898492395
