Quotes from Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert

The overall structure of the Portuguese trading networks was made of numerous individual networks, each organized around a merchant house, whose activities were limited to a set of markets within a circumscribed area of the Atlantic. Each of these smaller networks overlapped with its neighbors, one network fusing into another across the full expanse of the European overseas economy.

The Castilian officials had legitimate grounds for concern about the possible actions of a Portuguese fifth column. As early as May 1641, Portuguese warships leagued with the English and began to press against the Spanish possessions in the Caribbean and along the Pacific coast.4 In