A carregar...
Publicação
The chronic food deficit of early modern Portugal : curse or myth?
Autores
Orientador(es)
Resumo(s)
Two historiographical currents have debated whether early modern Portugal was cursed by an excessive dependence on foreign food imports as a result of being unable to feed its population, or not. In this short paper, the first long-run systematic quantitative study of this question, we show that the former view is a myth and therefore could not be a curse. Throughout the entire period, a certain amount of grain was in fact imported but cereal purchases abroad never represented more than a diminutive percentage of total food consumption. More importantly, the country carried out a diversified trade in foodstuffs which was seldom seriously out of balance. Portuguese agriculture showed itself consistently capable of specializing in different foodstuffs for export. It was thus not hopelessly inefficient and succeeded reasonably well in meeting the basic nutritional needs of the population.
Descrição
Palavras-chave
Food Deficit Agriculture Foreign Trade Portugal
Contexto Educativo
Citação
Costa, Leonor Freire e Jaime Reis (2016). "The chronic food deficit of early modern Portugal : curse or myth?". Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão – GHES Documento de Trabalho/ Working Paper nº 58-2016
Editora
ISEG - GHES