US-Portuguese trade in the era of the first real world war and beyond: instability and opportunity, 1796-1831

"The transition from the end of the eighteenth century to the first decades of the nineteenth century was marked by political instability in Europe. The expansion of the ideals of the French revolution, and the spread of the global war driven by aggressive Napoleonic France caused deep instability in Europe. Across the Atlantic, other wars were giving birth to new nations and the world was facing tremendous changes. The understanding of the trade relations between US and Portugal from 1796 to 1831 can contribute to a deeper insight into an understudied period in terms of international trade. Overcoming a major lack of studies regarding trade relations between Portugal and the United States in this period, we have created a new database in this article, based on new Portuguese sources. We then analyzed the trade relations in conjunction with American quantitative data and several qualitative sources. This paper taps into an important field of analysis, namely the discussion of the economic impacts of war on trade as well as the role of smaller (“weaker”) states in wartime situations. Many scholars have recently analyzed the disruptions caused by major conflicts like the world wars. And recent scholarship certainly puts the revolutionary wars and the ensuing Napoleonic conflicts into the same category. However, these scholars have paid relatively little attention to the smaller players in these wars, often assuming that they occupied an insignificant role in the conflict. Portugal, in particular, suffered three French invasions during Napoleon’s rule, and, since it did not adhere to the Continental blockade, it experienced trade restrictions with several of its former suppliers. Initially, the United States became a major trading partner for Portugal, despite its strained relations with an ally of Portugal, Great Britain, became a key supplier for the Portuguese market. However, after 1812, the war pitting United States against England brought new difficulties for the US-Portuguese trade, as US shipments with cereals and flour were frequently captured by England. The reversal of the political situation after the second defeat of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna once again changed the external environment for trade. In this paper we want to analyze the changes in the Portuguese trade relations, both in terms of goods exchanged and the policies, with the United States during an extremely turbulent period in history. We want to explore the following questions: 1) What kinds of changes do we see in the trade flows between these two countries, especially whether the pressure of the war effort allowed more latitude for Portugal to explore its trade options; 2) Do we see substantial changes in the types of goods exchanged over this complex period? 3) What was the significance of this trade for both countries? In sum, the exchange of American cereals for Portuguese goods, in a context of the deep instability that existed in the early nineteenth century, can be assumed to have linked both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in mutually beneficial trade. Yet, the context of this trade and its impact needs to be studied in detail, which is indeed our goal."