Despite not being an economic historian, Jorge Braga de Macedo has delved into economic history, with very favorable results. This is illustrated in the current chapter, which analyzes Braga de Macedo’s contribution to the understanding of the Portuguese economy’s transition from...

As bonds left untied make us reflect on the places where we never went, this chapter offers an economic, historical and political meditation on a bond between Portugal and Rothschild that was not tied. By discussing what was not and what might have been, the story offers ways to reflect on what...

The thirteenth century was an era of bold constitutional experiments in Europe. During this age, for the first time in history, fiscal constitutions, i.e., limits on the fiscal prerogatives of the state, emerged. In Portugal, this manifested itself as a monetary constitution that prevented the...

This chapter focuses on how the problems of economic development were addressed by the Portuguese historiography of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The ensuing discussion benefits from the simultaneous consideration of two historiographical domains that complement each other:...

I provide a structured comparison of the nineteenth-century classical gold standard and the Euro, basing my analysis heavily on recent research. Both similarities and differences are evident in the historical record. Both regimes were vaunted as engines of convergence, but in both cases...

This chapter provides some brief, informal notes about Portugal’s modern economic history since the 1974 Revolution, as it looks to an outsider observer. Not to be too coy about it, Portugal has done better than many feared but not quite as well as many hoped. There is, however, an asymmetry...