The Archive of Casa da India: reconstructing an invisible imperial archive (1500-1642)
The Archive of Casa da India: reconstructing an invisible imperial archive (1500-1642)
Casa da Índia e da Mina (henceforward House of India) was the first imperial European archive with a global reach. It operated between 1500 and 1833, but a substantial part of its archive was lost during the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. It was, despite its name, until the mid-17th century, the primary institution responsible for supervising the circulation and storage of people (including slaves), commodities, and information, licencing officials, dealing with taxes and duties in the whole empire (except for North Africa).
For decades, historiography has argued that archives should be interpreted as sites of knowledge production and where the royal power is negotiated, contested, confirmed, instead of mere instruments for storing information. Information gathering and record-keeping were essential for the imperial aspirations, and scholars have analysed a variety of archives and established a direct relationship not only between power and information keeping, but how this information is structured, organized, located and its utility as a source of power and legitimacy.
As its first imperial archive, House of India was an institutional pillar of the Portuguese empire, with an active role in shaping imperial policies and imperial dynamics. However, due to its destruction, historians have been studying the Portuguese empire without having a full comprehension of the dimension and relevance of this archive. The ambition of this project is to mitigate this methodological deficit.
The core questions of the project are the following: To what extent is it possible to reassemble the archive? How was it organized and how did it function? How did House of India perceive and record the imperial dynamics? How did the accumulation of knowledge contribute to the construction and conservation of the Portuguese Empire?
To answer these questions, this project aims to reconstitute, as much as possible, the archive and its operation. House of India’s norms and regulations provide us considerable information about the configuration of the archive, the relevance of the institution, how information was made available and circulated. This was important as a new method of political communication was required to manage a pluricontinental empire, present in three continents and connected by vast distances.
This reconstruction will allow us to explore the second dimension of ARCHIn: the material content of the archive strictu senso. Casa da Índia’s norms entailed that records of all the movements and transactions should be kept in a specific archive (Cartorio) located in specific rooms of House of India building. Which documents were kept in the Cartorio? What do they tell us about the Portuguese imperial dynamics? And what does it tell us about administrative innovation in the Portuguese empire? Finally, how did these practices articulate with other European imperial experiences? Although it is not the primary focus of this exploratory project, attention will be paid to the archive in lato sensu: many documents only passed through Casa da India. They did not leave traces in the archive itself, but they are part of Casa da India’s institutional scope.
Because of its exploratory nature, this project focuses on the period that encompasses the creation of the Casa da Índia in 1500 and 1642, when the Overseas Council was created, assuming most of its competences. As the political and administrative landscape changed, so did the institutional identity of Casa da India. It functioned until 1833 with the establishment of the constitutional monarchy and a new paradigm of government management, but, eventually, with the sole function of customs house.
Albeit focused on the Portuguese imperial experience, a project like this provides the opportunity to think on broader issues such as a) archives as key elements in the European colonial governance and their chronologies; and b) questions related with the uncertainty of power and the development of new technologies of communication.
Reclaiming House of India as a privileged institution regarding production, record-keeping, and knowledge production, this project aims to engage in wider debates on the challenges, failures of and solutions for political communication in the past as today. An exploratory project will allow us to build a prototype website that in combination with AI tools can provide scholars the possibility to ask new questions. Our long-term aim is to take this project further by applying to other funding bodies (such as FCT R&D projects, and ERC grants) and develop a comparative and interconnected analysis with Casa de la Contratación, EIC and VOC, relevant considering the connections both Iberian empires have with the Dutch Republic, and non-European imperial archives.
Archive; Portuguese empire; India; Information
Casa da Índia e da Mina (henceforward House of India) was the first imperial European archive with a global reach. It operated between 1500 and 1833, but a substantial part of its archive was lost during the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. It was, despite its name, until the mid-17th century, the primary institution responsible for supervising the circulation and storage of people (including slaves), commodities, and information, licencing officials, dealing with taxes and duties in the whole empire (except for North Africa).
For decades, historiography has argued that archives should be interpreted as sites of knowledge production and where the royal power is negotiated, contested, confirmed, instead of mere instruments for storing information. Information gathering and record-keeping were essential for the imperial aspirations, and scholars have analysed a variety of archives and established a direct relationship not only between power and information keeping, but how this information is structured, organized, located and its utility as a source of power and legitimacy.
As its first imperial archive, House of India was an institutional pillar of the Portuguese empire, with an active role in shaping imperial policies and imperial dynamics. However, due to its destruction, historians have been studying the Portuguese empire without having a full comprehension of the dimension and relevance of this archive. The ambition of this project is to mitigate this methodological deficit.
The core questions of the project are the following: To what extent is it possible to reassemble the archive? How was it organized and how did it function? How did House of India perceive and record the imperial dynamics? How did the accumulation of knowledge contribute to the construction and conservation of the Portuguese Empire?
To answer these questions, this project aims to reconstitute, as much as possible, the archive and its operation. House of India’s norms and regulations provide us considerable information about the configuration of the archive, the relevance of the institution, how information was made available and circulated. This was important as a new method of political communication was required to manage a pluricontinental empire, present in three continents and connected by vast distances.
This reconstruction will allow us to explore the second dimension of ARCHIn: the material content of the archive strictu senso. Casa da Índia’s norms entailed that records of all the movements and transactions should be kept in a specific archive (Cartorio) located in specific rooms of House of India building. Which documents were kept in the Cartorio? What do they tell us about the Portuguese imperial dynamics? And what does it tell us about administrative innovation in the Portuguese empire? Finally, how did these practices articulate with other European imperial experiences? Although it is not the primary focus of this exploratory project, attention will be paid to the archive in lato sensu: many documents only passed through Casa da India. They did not leave traces in the archive itself, but they are part of Casa da India’s institutional scope.
Because of its exploratory nature, this project focuses on the period that encompasses the creation of the Casa da Índia in 1500 and 1642, when the Overseas Council was created, assuming most of its competences. As the political and administrative landscape changed, so did the institutional identity of Casa da India. It functioned until 1833 with the establishment of the constitutional monarchy and a new paradigm of government management, but, eventually, with the sole function of customs house.
Albeit focused on the Portuguese imperial experience, a project like this provides the opportunity to think on broader issues such as a) archives as key elements in the European colonial governance and their chronologies; and b) questions related with the uncertainty of power and the development of new technologies of communication.
Reclaiming House of India as a privileged institution regarding production, record-keeping, and knowledge production, this project aims to engage in wider debates on the challenges, failures of and solutions for political communication in the past as today. An exploratory project will allow us to build a prototype website that in combination with AI tools can provide scholars the possibility to ask new questions. Our long-term aim is to take this project further by applying to other funding bodies (such as FCT R&D projects, and ERC grants) and develop a comparative and interconnected analysis with Casa de la Contratación, EIC and VOC, relevant considering the connections both Iberian empires have with the Dutch Republic, and non-European imperial archives.
