ABSTRACT
Portugal’s overseas expansion in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries had been propelled forward by a steady growth in population. A partial census had been taken in 1496 and another was held in 1527-32. The results of the second of these counts show that the population had risen everywhere in Portugal from between 28 per cent and 150 per cent. This buoyant population growth had allowed a steady emigration to the Atlantic islands and to the Estado da India. One estimate suggests that 80,000 Portuguese (virtually all males) left for the East between 1500 and 1527 and this rate of approximately 3,000 a year was maintained or even exceeded at least until 1580.1 From then until the 1620s an average of 2,000-3,000 people left annually on the India fleets, approximately half that number returning. The numbers of those leaving Portugal rose sharply in the first decade of the seventeenth century. The Estado da India experienced a new burst of activity and unprecedented numbers of ships sailed for the East. By 1620 Brazil was also attracting 3,000-5,000 immigrants a year while the union of the Crowns, which had opened the Spanish empire to the Portuguese, meant that large numbers of Portuguese were entering Spanish service, enlisting as crew on Spanish ships or emigrating to Spanish America. Towards the end of the decade there was also a marked rise in emigration by New Christians, as Spain’s first minister, Olivares, granted permission for New Christians to leave the country in exchange for their participation in the asientos. This acceleration in the pace of emigration was occurring at a time when the war in Europe, which had resumed after 1621, was also making increased demands on manpower.
