South-South Connections: “Chindia,” Enlightenment, and Agricultural Improvement in the Portuguese Empire, 1780–1820

In contrast to the allegedly successful parliamentary path of Northern Europe, ever since the eighteenth-century, Iberian empires have been commonly portrayed as telling cases of economically unsuccessful, backward and absolutist polities. Even while Portugal was not initially included in this eighteenth-century narrative of backwardness, over the course of the years that followed it quickly became part of an allegedly Iberian paradigm of backwardness. Much of contemporary scholarship has sought to challenge this paradigm, suggesting instead that these ubiquitous portrayals of backwardness do not correspond with the actual historical development of both empires. Indeed, many economic historians now argue that the image of centralized governments or absolutist powers does not adequately describe the concrete functioning of Iberian polities. This paper moves in this direction, but it does so from the perspective of Intellectual and cultural history. An intellectual history of political economy could challenge the way we think about backwardness and decadence in Iberian empires. More specifically, the paper scrutinizes Portuguese projects intended to emulate Chinese and Indian agricultural practices. It analyzes how Portuguese administrators envisioned the introduction and promotion of tea plants, opium poppy, and other crops in the colonies, seeking to propel commercial exchanges. Furthermore, it pays attention to the trans-national character of the agents involved in the accomplishment of such ventures. All of these projects are in some sense inconceivable when viewed from the perspective of the Black Legend. Nonetheless, their existence should convince us that we should reconsider the Iberian paradigm of backwardness, and it should also invite us to construct more nuanced comparative narratives between the European North and South.