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P01


Fighting monopolies, building global empires: power building beyond the borders of empire (15th-18th centuries) 
Convenors:
Catia Antunes (Leiden University)
Amélia Polónia (University of Porto - Faculty of Arts)
Location:
Antifeatro 1, Piso 0
Sessions:
Thursday 18 July, -, -, -, Friday 19 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon

Short Abstract:

How did free agents in Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire react to the creation of colonial monopolies in the Early Modern period? How did the monopolies react? What kind of empire was then created? This panel looks at the role individuals played in the construction of informal empires that can be but considered global.

Long Abstract:

How did ‘free agents’ (entrepreneurs operating outside of the interests of the centralized, state-sponsored monopolies) react to the creation of colonial monopolies (royal monopolies and chartered companies) in the Early Modern period? This proposal will answer this question by looking at the role individuals played in the construction of ‘informal empires’, resulting from the enactment of a multitude of self-organized networks operating world-wide, whose main goal was safeguarding their personal social and economic advantages, regardless of (and in spite of) state intervention.

Free agents, their families and networks operated in the Atlantic or Asia, across geographical borders between empires, went beyond the restrictions imposed by religious differences, ethnic diversity or the political interests of central states. This informal empire was a borderless, self-organize, often cross-cultural, multi-ethnic, pluri-national and stateless world that can only be characterized as global.

This proposal is the result of the collaboration between the projects <i>DynCoopNet</i> (a TECT- The Evolution of Cooperation and Trading Program, EUROCORES Scheme, ESF), <i>Challenging Monopolies, Building Global Empires in the Early Modern Period</i> (VIDI Granting Scheme – NWO) and <i>Fighting Monopolies, Defying Empires 1500-1750: a Comparative Overview of Free Agents and Informal Empires in Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire</i> (Starting Grant Scheme, ERC).

To address this complex problem, we propose a 4-session panel, in a total of 16 papers to be advertised for call for papers as: <i>Fighting the Monopolies; The Empire Strikes Back; Mechanisms of Global Empire Building: Cooperation Beyond the Borders of Empire; and Comparative Reflections on Definitions of Empire.</i>

Accepted papers:

Session 1 Thursday 18 July, 2013, -