Trade, Credit, and Marriage: The Mobility of Portuguese Conversa Merchants and Financiers

Abstract

This chapter explores the mobility and activities of four Portuguese women merchants and financiers during the first half of the seventeenth century. All were conversas (descendants of Jews) and belonged to prominent merchant houses that carried out international business. Most dealt in trade negotiations and lent credit to the Spanish Monarchy, continuing their husbands’ international negotiations when widowed. These women traveled from Lisbon to Madrid, but also to Cádiz and to the Netherlands. By tracing and investigating their activities, I chart their travels, which were due to their husbands’ dealings that became theirs, to their need to take care of their family debts, to their own participation in commercial transactions, and even to marry.