- International Institute of Social History, Cruquiusweg 31, 1019 AT Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- +31 20 6685866
Filipa Ribeiro da Silva
International Institute of Social History, Research Department, Department Member
- Economic History, Social History, Maritime History, Labor History, Historical Demography, History of slavery and migration movements, and 26 moreDutch Empire, Dutch West India Company, Slave Trade, Atlantic history, Portuguese History, History of the Portuguese Empire, Inquisition, Inquisição Portuguesa, Early Modern economic and social history, Angola, History of History, Atlantic Slave Trade, The Lusophone World, African History, Colonialism, Portuguese Inquisition, Labour history, Angolan History, Colonial Brazil, Early Modern Portuguese History, Atlantic World, History of Mozambique, Atlantic Africa, Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, and Mozambiqueedit
- I am Senior Researcher at the International Institute of Social History (IISH/IISG) of the Royal Netherlands Academy ... moreI am Senior Researcher at the International Institute of Social History (IISH/IISG) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and Member of the Global Collaboratory on the History of Labour Relations. I have a doctoral degree in History from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, a MA in Portuguese Overseas History and BA Honours in History from the New University of Lisbon in Portugal.edit
Research Interests:
Most scholarship on early modern Jewish History has used the Portuguese Inquisition Archives to study the persecution and diaspora of Jews and New Christians. The Notarial acts of the Amsterdam Municipal archive and its Jewish collection,... more
Most scholarship on early modern Jewish History has used the Portuguese Inquisition Archives to study the persecution and diaspora of Jews and New Christians. The Notarial acts of the Amsterdam Municipal archive and its Jewish collection, on the other hand, have been used mainly to reconstruct Jewish Migration to the city and its Jewish community. Few studies, however, have utilised these collections to analyse Jewish short-term mobility. When utilised alongside one another, these materials prove to be an effective mean to study Jewish movements. This article will shed new light into this topic by looking at seventeenth- century Jewish long- and short-term mobility between Europe and western Africa.
Research Interests:
Este artigo analisa o papel desempenhado pelos mercadores privados das Províncias Unidas dos Países Baixos do Norte sedeados no Brasil e pela Companhia Holandesa das Índias Ocidentais na consolidação do sistema económico do Atlântico Sul... more
Este artigo analisa o papel desempenhado pelos mercadores privados das Províncias Unidas dos Países Baixos do Norte sedeados no Brasil e pela Companhia Holandesa das Índias Ocidentais na consolidação do sistema económico do Atlântico Sul durante o século XVII. Para tal, vamos examinar as trocas políticas, militares e comerciais estabelecidas entre as capitanias do Nordeste Brasileiro e Angola durante os anos de 1630 a 1654.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This introduction explains why it is important to include the history of labor and labor relations in Africa in Global Labor History. It suggests that the approach of the Global Collaboratory on the History of Labour Relations 1500–2000 –... more
This introduction explains why it is important to include the history of labor and labor relations in Africa in Global Labor History. It suggests that the approach of the Global Collaboratory on the History of Labour Relations 1500–2000 – with its taxonomy of labor relations – is a feasible method for applying this approach to the historiography on labor history in Africa. The introduction ends with an analysis of four case studies that are presented in this special section, with a specific focus on shifts in labor relations and how they could be explained.Cette introduction explique pourquoi serait-il important que d’inclure – dans l’Histoire Globale du Travail – l’histoire du travail et les relations de travail en Afrique. Elle véhicule l’approche du projet “Pour une Collaboratoire Globale sur l’Histoire des Relations de Travail, 1500–2000.” En particulier, ce projet propose une taxonomie des relations de travail comme instrument méthodologique, en replaçant celle-ci dans le cadre de l’historiographie de l’histoire du travail dans une perspective locale et mondialisée. L’introduction termine avec une analyse des cinq études de cas présentés dans cette section spéciale avec une attention portée aux changements survenus dans les relations de travail.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Neste artigo analisamos a participação dos Judeus de Amesterdão e de outras cidades portuárias holandesas no comércio com a costa ocidental africana entre as décadas de 1580 e 1660. Para tal, examinamos os mecanismos utilizados para... more
Neste artigo analisamos a participação dos Judeus de Amesterdão e de outras cidades portuárias holandesas no comércio com a costa ocidental africana entre as décadas de 1580 e 1660. Para tal, examinamos os mecanismos utilizados para financiar e assegurar os navios a operar neste negócio e suas cargas, bem como a organização comercial destas viagens de comércio. Para concluir, estudamos ainda as principais áreas de investimento, os mais importantes ramos do negócio, e os tipos de redes financeiras e comerciais construídas por estes mercadores a fim de garantir o seu sucesso nestas actividades.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Together, Portugal and Brazil were the second biggest players in the transatlantic slave trade. However, we still know little about the profits generated by the slave trade and by the activities carried out by slaves within the... more
ABSTRACT Together, Portugal and Brazil were the second biggest players in the transatlantic slave trade. However, we still know little about the profits generated by the slave trade and by the activities carried out by slaves within the Portuguese Empire – in particular in the Atlantic world. In other words, who were the various groups benefiting from those profits and where was the capital obtained invested and/or reinvested? In this article, we present preliminary estimates of gross profits generated by the Portuguese Brazilian participation in this business and discuss the methodological challenges faced to calculate the net profits of Portuguese–Brazilian participation in the slave trade as well as in assessing the weight of slave-based produce in the economies of Portugal, and Brazil. The first part of our study relies mainly on the data available in the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database, evidence gathered from several Portuguese archives, and the slave prices’ series built by David Richardson and David Eltis et al for West and West Central Africa and the Brazilian slave prices series built by Laird Bergad. The second part will be based on the vast body of literature and source materials available in Portuguese, English and other languages on the topic.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This introduction provides an overview of the concepts discussed in this book. The book focuses on the South Atlantic trading circuit, which commonly tends to be neglected in the English-language literature on the Atlantic slave trade, in... more
This introduction provides an overview of the concepts discussed in this book. The book focuses on the South Atlantic trading circuit, which commonly tends to be neglected in the English-language literature on the Atlantic slave trade, in part because it was dominated by Portuguese-Brazilian traders. Several essays in the book focus on twin hubs of Portuguese trading operations in its Angolan core. It also includes, however, two other essays that highlight aspects of slave trading in the South Atlantic that lay outside the Angolan-Brazil axes that were at the heart of the Portuguese-Brazilian dominance of the South Atlantic commercial world. In tandem with the changing political context of slaving in Africa, the actions by the Brazilian authorities in the early 1850s proved particularly devastating for South Atlantic trading networks, which had been the most enduring and arguably the most resilient among those underpinning the whole transatlantic slave trade. Keywords: Angolan-Brazil axes; Brazilian authorities; Portuguese-Brazilian traders; South Atlantic slave trade; South Atlantic trading networks
Research Interests:
The role played by Atlantic islands in the formation of European overseas empires, and the development of coastal and intercontinental commercial routes and business networks, is relatively well studied for the Iberian Atlantic. Few... more
The role played by Atlantic islands in the formation of European overseas empires, and the development of coastal and intercontinental commercial routes and business networks, is relatively well studied for the Iberian Atlantic. Few scholars have, however, examined the functions of isles in the building of Dutch maritime connections. This paper partially fills this void in the literature by looking at the African islands of Arguin, Gorée, Cape Verde and São Tomé, and highlighting their significance within the seventeenth-century Dutch Atlantic. Using information from the notarial archives of Amsterdam, the collection of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) and journals of voyages, we examine the role played by these islands in the formation and operationalization of Dutch commercial circuits in the Atlantic, and emphasize their geo-strategic importance for the achievement of the colonial aspirations and military ambitions of the Dutch Republic and the WIC.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Current article present the Round Table called “The history of labor relationships in the Portuguese-speaking world (19th – 21st centuries)” comprising 6 art...
Research Interests:
O objetivo deste artigo e apresentar a Mesa Redonda: "Historia das Relacoes Laborais no Mundo Lusofono (XIX-XXI)" composta de 6 artigos, com a finalidade de quantificar, analisar e compreender as relacoes laborais em Portugal e... more
O objetivo deste artigo e apresentar a Mesa Redonda: "Historia das Relacoes Laborais no Mundo Lusofono (XIX-XXI)" composta de 6 artigos, com a finalidade de quantificar, analisar e compreender as relacoes laborais em Portugal e no mundo lusofono no periodo contemporâneo, assinalando as formas como a mao de obra e as relacoes laborais se foram modificando e adaptando a evolucao social, economica e politica de Portugal e do mundo lusofono nos ultimos dois seculos.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Coord: Marcelo Badaró Mattos, Filipa Ribeiro da Silva, Paulo Teodoro de Matos, Raquel Varela, Sónia Ferreira
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Challenging current ideas in mainstream scholarship on differences between female labour force participation in southern and north-western Europe and their impact on economic development, this article shows that in Portugal, neither... more
Challenging current ideas in mainstream scholarship on differences between female labour force participation in southern and north-western Europe and their impact on economic development, this article shows that in Portugal, neither marriage nor widowhood prevented women from participating in the labour market of mid-eighteenth-century. Our research demonstrates that marriage provided women with the resources they needed to work in various capacities in all economic sectors. This article also argues that single Portuguese women had an incentive to work and did so mostly as wage earners. Finally, the comparison of our dataset on female occupations from tax records with other European cases calls for a revision of the literature and the development of a more nuanced picture of the north-south divide.
Research Interests:
In comparative perspective, this article examines the shipping, construction, maintenance and repair of Dutch and English ships, boats and canoes operating in West Africa during the precolonial period. In addition, I discuss the... more
In comparative perspective, this article examines the shipping, construction, maintenance and repair of Dutch and English ships, boats and canoes operating in West Africa during the precolonial period. In addition, I discuss the strategies adopted by Dutch, English, and other ‘nations’ of merchants present in the various coastal regions of the African continent, to cope with the challenges posed by port-to-port navigation and transportation in shallow river estuaries along the western coast of Africa. Among these strategies were the transport of pre-fabricated boats of small dimension to the coast on board of heavier ships and recruitment of personnel specialised in ship repair and shipbuilding, to the acquisition, either temporary or permanent, of African boats and recruitment of African boatmen. In this way, merchants’ success on the coast was dependent on both European and African shipbuilding craftsmanship and navigational skills. Our analysis is based on information gathered fr...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Jeremy Ball. Angola’s Colossal Lie. Forced Labor on a Sugar Plantation, 1913–1977. [African History, Vol. 4.] Brill, Leiden 2015. xvi, 199 pp. €49.00; $63.00.Todd Cleveland. Diamonds in the Rough. Corporate Paternalism and African Professionalism on the Mines of Colonial Angola, 1917–1975. Ohio U...more
Research Interests:
This article examines the main changes in the policies of the Portuguese state in relation to Mozambique and its labour force during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, stemming from political changes within the Portuguese... more
This article examines the main changes in the policies of the Portuguese state in relation to Mozambique and its labour force during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, stemming from political changes within the Portuguese Empire (i.e. the independence of Brazil in 1821), the European political scene (i.e. the Berlin Conference, 1884–1885), and the Southern African context (i.e. the growing British, French, and German presence). By becoming a principle mobilizer and employer of labour power in the territory, an allocator of labour to neighbouring colonial states, and by granting private companies authority to play identical roles, the Portuguese state brought about important shifts in labour relations in Mozambique. Slave and tributary labour were replaced by new forms of indentured labour (initially termed serviçais and latter contratados) and forced labour (compelidos). The period also saw an increase in commodified labour in the form of wage labour (voluntários), self-e...