The chronic food deficit of early modern Portugal: curse or myth?
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2017 |
Outros Autores: | |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
Texto Completo: | http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0003-25732017000200007 |
Resumo: | Two historiographic currents have debated whether early modern Portugal was cursed by an excessive dependence on agricultural imports due to being unable to feed its population. 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. |
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The chronic food deficit of early modern Portugal: curse or myth?food deficitagricultureforeign tradePortugalTwo historiographic currents have debated whether early modern Portugal was cursed by an excessive dependence on agricultural imports due to being unable to feed its population. 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.Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa2017-06-01info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articletext/htmlhttp://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0003-25732017000200007Análise Social n.223 2017reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAPenghttp://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0003-25732017000200007Freire Costa,LeonorReis,Jaimeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess2024-02-06T16:57:10Zoai:scielo:S0003-25732017000200007Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-20T02:14:28.075340Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
The chronic food deficit of early modern Portugal: curse or myth? |
title |
The chronic food deficit of early modern Portugal: curse or myth? |
spellingShingle |
The chronic food deficit of early modern Portugal: curse or myth? Freire Costa,Leonor food deficit agriculture foreign trade Portugal |
title_short |
The chronic food deficit of early modern Portugal: curse or myth? |
title_full |
The chronic food deficit of early modern Portugal: curse or myth? |
title_fullStr |
The chronic food deficit of early modern Portugal: curse or myth? |
title_full_unstemmed |
The chronic food deficit of early modern Portugal: curse or myth? |
title_sort |
The chronic food deficit of early modern Portugal: curse or myth? |
author |
Freire Costa,Leonor |
author_facet |
Freire Costa,Leonor Reis,Jaime |
author_role |
author |
author2 |
Reis,Jaime |
author2_role |
author |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Freire Costa,Leonor Reis,Jaime |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
food deficit agriculture foreign trade Portugal |
topic |
food deficit agriculture foreign trade Portugal |
description |
Two historiographic currents have debated whether early modern Portugal was cursed by an excessive dependence on agricultural imports due to being unable to feed its population. 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. |
publishDate |
2017 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2017-06-01 |
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0003-25732017000200007 |
url |
http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0003-25732017000200007 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0003-25732017000200007 |
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
eu_rights_str_mv |
openAccess |
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv |
text/html |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa |
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv |
Análise Social n.223 2017 reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação instacron:RCAAP |
instname_str |
Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
instacron_str |
RCAAP |
institution |
RCAAP |
reponame_str |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
collection |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
repository.name.fl_str_mv |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
repository.mail.fl_str_mv |
|
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1799137245978951680 |