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:...

1. From pre-history to the Crusades -- 2. From the Crusades to the Renaissance -- 3. The Protestant work ethic and the rise of capitalism as Gods work -- 4. The Enlightenment: From Leonardo to Galileo -- 5. The rise of the East India Trading Companies -- 6. The “glorious revolution” and the...