Portuguese East India Company Portuguese East India Company The Portuguese East India Company ( or ) was a short-lived ill-fated attempt by Philip III of Portugal to create a national chartered company to look after interests in Portuguese India in the face on encroachment by the Dutch and English following the personal union of the Portuguese and Spanish Crowns. Portuguese trade with India had been a crown monopoly since the Portuguese captain Vasco da Gama opened the sea route to India in 1497-99. The monopoly had been managed by the Casa da Índia, the royal trading house founded around 1500. The Casa was responsible
Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil until 1818 and then as king from 1818 onwards, granted 145 nobility titles. During the time that the court was located in Brazil, the Portuguese royal family collectively granted more titles of nobility than it had in its past 300 years of existence in Portugal. Much can be said about the motivations for ennobling so many people, and these titles had consequences to the political scene of Brazil, including the systematic isolation of Brazilians from politics. Between 1811 and 1821, a vast majority of noble titles were granted to those who had travelled with the court in 1807 or had