Fishmongers and Shipowners: Women in Maritime Communities of Early Modern Portugal
Author(s)
Abreu-Fereira, Darlene
Abstract
With the use of archival documents from municipal government collections and port registries, this study will show the extent of women’s involvement in maritime trade and attempt to identify possible explanations for the apparent discrepancies in the gender division of labor between northern and southern Europe, especially in early modern Portugal. Ships’ rolls, port records, and municipal tax registries suggest that Portuguese women were at the forefront of local and international trade, including the financing of fishing expeditions to Newfoundland. These women were so engaged not as individuals, but as vital members of family units. Even though patriarchy was practiced in these family units, sources leave little doubt that Portuguese maritime women were at the heart of both hearth and purse.
