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{{Short description|1500–1833 Portuguese colonial commercial organization}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Casa da Índia
| image = Portugueseguineacompanyflag.svg
| image_size = 200px
| image_caption = <small>Flag originally used by the Casa da Guiné and subsequently the Casa da Índia.</small>
| predecessor = ''[[Company of Guinea|Casa da Guiné e Mina]]''<br/> {{small|(Founded 1443)}} <br/>''Casa de Ceuta''<br/>{{small|(Founded 1434)}}
| foundation = 1500
| defunct = {{End date|df=yes|1833|9|17}}
| location = [[Ribeira Palace]], [[Lisbon]], [[Kingdom of Portugal]]
| area_served = [[Portuguese Empire]]
| key_people = <small>'''Founder of the Casa da Índia:'''</small><br/>[[Manuel I of Portugal|King Manuel I of Portugal]] <br/> <small>'''Founder of the Casa da Guiné:'''</small><br/>[[Prince Henry the Navigator]]
| industry = [[International trade]]
}}
The '''Casa da Índia''' ({{IPA-pt|ˈkazɐ ðɐ ˈĩdiɐ}}; [[English language|English]]: '''''India House''''' or '''''House of India''''') was a Portuguese [[state-run enterprise|state-run]] commercial organization during the [[Age of Discovery]]. It regulated [[international trade]] and the [[Portuguese Empire]]'s territories, colonies, and [[factory (trading post)|factories (trading posts)]] across Asia and Africa. Central to the Casa da Índia's objectives was the establishment and protection of a Portuguese ''[[mare clausum]]'' ("closed sea" – total control of the seas) in the [[Atlantic Ocean]], [[Indian Ocean]], [[Arabian Sea]], and the [[East Indies|Indies]].
Founded with the intent of protecting Portugal's [[monopoly]] of the spice trade, the Casa da Índia in 1497 began financing and organizing the [[Portuguese India Armadas]], annual armadas of [[galleon]]s, [[carrack]]s, and [[caravel]]s transporting commodities such as gold, ivory, and spices to [[Lisbon]] from Portuguese trading posts and colonies across Africa and Asia. The Casa da Índia sponsored numerous famous Portuguese navigators, including [[Vasco da Gama]] (who [[Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India|discovered the sea route to India]]), [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]] (who discovered [[Brazil]]), and [[Afonso de Albuquerque]] (who established Portuguese hegemony in the [[Indian Ocean]]).
Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, the Casa da Índia rapidly grew into an economically powerful institution that played a crucial role in the financing of [[Portuguese discoveries]] and expeditions throughout [[West Africa]], [[East Africa]], the [[Middle East]], [[India]], and the [[East Indies]]. The Casa da Índia also played an important role in the development of modern [[cartography]], patronizing the ''[[Padrão Real]]'', one of the first [[early world maps]].
Between the origins of the Casa da Índia in the 1400s and its dissolution in 1833, its principal aims evolved, as did its relations with the [[Kingdom of Portugal|Crown of Portugal]] and the imperial administration. After 1642 it lost all its trade monopolies on gold, silver, ivory, and spices and became solely a trade regulator and [[customs]] agency. Following the destruction of its [[Ribeira Palace]] headquarters and facilities in the [[1755 Lisbon earthquake|Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755]], the Casa da Índia grew increasingly obsolete in relation to Portugal's evolving trade and colonial policies, and most of its functions were slowly absorbed into ministries and agencies of the [[Portuguese government]], until the final dissolution of the Casa da Índia in 1833.
==History==
[[File:Lisbon in 1572 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|250px|[[Ribeira Palace]] (on the right), where the Casa da Índia was headquartered, and its naval yards (on the left), in 1575.]]
===Origins===
{{main|Casa da Guiné}}
[[File:Elmina slave castle.jpg|thumb|right|[[Elmina Castle]], built in 1482 on the [[Portuguese Gold Coast]], is the oldest European building in [[Sub-Saharan Africa]]. The [[Casa da Guiné|Casa da Guiné e Mina]] was charged with managing and taxing Elmina along with the other Portuguese [[factory (trading post)|factories]] on the [[Gulf of Guinea]].]]
The forerunners of ''Casa da Índia'' arose with the [[Portuguese discoveries|Portuguese exploration]] of the African coast, to manage new trade opportunities.
As early as 1434 the ''Casa de Ceuta'' was founded in Lisbon, but it was not very successful because the Muslim merchants diverted the trade routes from [[Ceuta]] to other places. Around 1443 in [[Lagos, Portugal|Lagos]], Algarve, the ''Casa de Arguim'' and ''[[Company of Guinea|Casa da Guiné]]'', were established to administer Prince [[Henry the Navigator]]'s monopoly on African trade - essentially a set of sheds, warehouses and customs offices, dedicated to outfitting ships, hiring captains and crews, handing out trading licenses, receiving and selling goods and collecting dues.
After the death of [[Henry the Navigator]] in 1460, both houses were moved by King [[Afonso V of Portugal]] from [[Lagos, Portugal|Lagos]] to [[Lisbon]].
The ascension of King [[John II of Portugal]] in 1481 revived the royal interest in African trade. In 1482, upon erecting the fortress of [[Elmina|São Jorge da Mina]] to access the [[Akan people|Akan]] goldfields and markets,<ref name="Bakewell">{{cite book|author=Wilks, Ivor. Wangara, Akan, and Portuguese in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries|editor1-last=Bakewell|editor1-first=Peter|title=Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas|date=1997|publisher=Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Limited|location=Aldershot|pages=1–39}}</ref> John II overhauled the old houses and organized the system into two new institutions in Lisbon - the royal trading house, the ''Casa da Mina e Tratos de Guiné'', focused on commercial aspects of African trade (goods, licenses, dues), and the separate royal naval arsenal, the ''Armazém da Guiné'', to handle nautical matters (ship construction, nautical supplies, hiring of crews, etc.)
In 1486, after the opening of contact with [[Benin Empire|Benin]], John II established the ''Casa de Escravos'', as a distinct [[slave]]-trading department of the ''Casa da Mina''.
===Golden age===
[[File:Cabral armada of 1500 (Livro das Armadas) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|The [[2nd Portuguese India Armada (Cabral, 1500)|2nd Portuguese India Armada]], commanded by [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]], discovered [[Colonial Brazil|Brazil]] on its way to [[Portuguese India|India]].]]
{{see also|Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India|Portuguese India Armadas}}
With the discovery of a sea route to [[India]] by [[Vasco da Gama]] in 1497-99, the [[spice trade]] became a new and important activity of the royal trading house, and the old ''Casa'' was reorganized into the ''Casa da Índia e da Guiné'' (the first written reference to a ''Casa da Índia'' was in a royal letter dated 1501).
[[File:Fernandes Holy Trinity (detail).jpg|thumb|right|upright|King [[Manuel I of Portugal]] created the Casa da Índia and oversaw a successful expansionist period of the [[Portuguese Empire]] in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.]]
From 1511, offices of the ''Casa da Índia'' were located on the ground floor of the royal [[Ribeira Palace]] on [[Terreiro do Paço]] in [[Lisbon]], with the Armazém just next to it.<ref name="ṬāliqānīCouto2006">{{cite book|author1=Maḥmūd Ṭāliqānī|author2=Dejanirah Couto|author3=Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont|title=كارتوگرافى تاريخى خليج فارس: actes du colloque organisé les 21 et 22 avril 2004 à Téhéran par l'EPHE, l'université de Téhéran et le Centre de documentation et de recherche d'Iran|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3h37IOxTO5cC&pg=PA66|year=2006|publisher=Peeters Publishers|isbn=978-2-909961-40-8|page=66}}</ref>
The [[Portuguese India Armadas]] (''Armadas da Índia'') were the fleets of ships, organized by the Casa da Índia in name of the [[List of Portuguese monarchs|Portuguese Crown]], and dispatched on an annual basis from Portugal to India, principally [[Goa]]. These armadas undertook the ''Carreira da Índia'' ("India Run"), following the sea route around the [[Cape of Good Hope]] first opened up by Vasco da Gama in 1497–1499.
For about thirty years, from 1503 to 1535, the Portuguese cut into the Venetian spice trade in the Mediterranean. By 1510, the Portuguese throne was pocketing a million [[Portuguese real|cruzados]] yearly from the spice trade alone, and it was this which led [[Francis I of France]] to dub King [[Manuel I of Portugal]] "le roi épicier",{{cite quote|date=November 2022}} that is, "the grocer king."
Income started to decline mid-century because of costs of maintaining a presence in Morocco and domestic waste. Also, Portugal did not develop a substantial domestic infrastructure to support this activity, but relied on foreigners for many services supporting their trading enterprises, and therefore a lot of the income was consumed in this way.
In 1549 the Portuguese trade center in Antwerp went bankrupt and was closed. As the crown became more overextended in the 1550s, it relied more and more on external financing. By about 1560 the income of the Casa da Índia was not able to cover its expenses. The Portuguese monarchy had become, in [[Garrett Mattingly]]'s phrase, the owner of "a [[National bankruptcy|bankrupt]] wholesale grocery business."{{cite quote|date=November 2022}}
===Decline===
[[File:Projeto da recontrucao do edificio da Casa da India (cropped).jpg|thumb|450px|center|Reconstruction proposal for the headquarters of the Casa da Índia after the [[1755 Lisbon earthquake|Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755]]]]
In 1709 at the Casa da Índia, the [[Jesuit]] priest Father [[Bartolomeu de Gusmão]] demonstrated the principles of hot air ballooning. He managed to levitate a ball indoors at the Casa da Índia in Lisbon. He later fled from Portugal to Spain, for fear of being accused of performing magic by the [[Inquisition]]
The [[1755 Lisbon earthquake|Great Earthquake of 1755]] destroyed much of [[Lisbon]], including [[Ribeira Palace]], where the headquarters and naval yards of the Casa da Índia were located.
The final era of the Casa da Índia began in 1822, during the reign of King [[John VI of Portugal]], when a large number of its responsibilities were transferred to different ministries of the [[Portuguese Government]]. In 1833, the Casa da Índia was finally dissolved, by King [[Miguel I of Portugal]], and its functions were absorbed by the ''Alfândega de Lisboa'' (Customs Agency of Lisbon).
== Organization ==
[[File:João de Barros (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[João de Barros]], a poet, author, and historian of the [[Portuguese Renaissance]], was ''[[Factor (agent)|Feitor]]'' of the Casa da Índia from 1532 to 1568.]]
[[File:Portuguese Carracks off a Rocky Coast (cropped) (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Vasco da Gama]]'s flagship, the ''[[Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai|Santa Catarina do Sinai]]''.]]
Although initially (c.1500) consolidated in one unit, the ''Casa da Índia e da Guiné'', it was separated again (c. 1506) into two distinct units, ''Casa da Índia'' and the ''Casa da Mina e da Guiné'' again. However, both houses were overseen by the same officers at the higher levels, so it was common to use the joint term, or simply just ''Casa da Índia'', to refer to both.
The Casas were overseen by the same director and the same three treasurers (''tesoreiros'') - one for receiving goods, one for the sale of goods, and a third to handle everything else. There were five secretaries in charge of the administration - three for India, two for Mina and Guinea - and one chief factor (''feitor'') in charge of schedules and correspondence with all the Portuguese ''[[Factory (trading post)|feitorias]]'' around the world. One of the most famous people to hold this position was the chronicler [[João de Barros]], who was appointed ''feitor'' in 1532.
The Casa was in charge of monitoring the royal monopoly on the Asian and African trade, i.e. receiving goods, collecting [[duties]] on incoming goods, organizing the fleets (notably the yearly [[Portuguese India Armadas]]) and shipping schedules, ratifying contracts with private merchants, etc.
The ''Casa'' had various ''mesas'' (departments) focused on specific areas - the spice trade, finances, ship scheduling, maintenance, training, documentation and legal matters.
===Shipyards===
[[File:Armanzens e Ribeira das Naus da Casa da India (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|The ''Armazém da Guiné e Índias'', the shipyards of the Casa da Índia.]]
Separately from the ''Casa'' was the ''Armazém da Guiné e Índias'', the new name for the naval arsenal. It was assigned all nautical responsibilities, such as the running of the Lisbon dockyards, the construction of ships, the hiring and training of crews and supplying the fleets with equipment - sails, ropes, guns, nautical instruments and maps.
The ''Piloto-Mor'' of the ''Armazém'', a position held between 1503 and 1526 by Pero Anes, Gonçalo Álvares and João de Lisboa, was probably responsible for the training of [[Maritime pilot|pilot]]-[[navigator]]s and the drafting of navigational charts.<ref>e.g. Teixeira da Mota (1969) "Os Regimentos do cosmógrafo-mor de 1559 e 1592 e as origens do ensino náutico em Portugal",''Memórias da Academia das Ciências de Lisboa'', vol. 13, pp.227-91. J.I. Brito-Rebello (1903) ''Livro de Marinharia'' (Lisbon: Libânio da Silva) replicates the documents for the nominations of Pero Annes ([https://books.google.com/books?id=8vwnAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR74 18 February 1503]), João de Lisboa replacing Gonçalo Álvares as "patrão" ([https://books.google.com/books?id=8vwnAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR76 11 December 1522]) and "piloto-mor" ([https://books.google.com/books?id=8vwnAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR77 12 January 1525]), and Fernando Affonso as "patrão" ([https://books.google.com/books?id=8vwnAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR78 15 November 1526])</ref>
In 1547, the position of ''Cosmógrafo-mor'' (High-Cosmographer) was created for the famed mathematician [[Pedro Nunes]] and the cartographic duties passed over to him.
The ''Provedor dos Armazéns'' was in charge of screening and hiring of crews. The ''Almoxarife'' or ''Recebedor dos Armazéns'', was the customs-collector, a highly-profitable job that was once held by [[Bartolomeu Dias]] in the mid-1490s.
Although theoretically separate, the ''Casa'' and the ''Armazém'' kept in contact and coordinated matters with each other, the expenses from one charged to the treasurer of the other, and officers moved seamlessly between them. As a result, it was common to use ''Casa da Índia'' to refer to the whole complex.
== Operations ==
{{Colonial India}}
In 1504 all trading activities in Africa and, especially, in Asia were merged in the Casa da Índia, becoming subject to state control under the Portuguese kings. Under the supervision of the ''Vedor da Fazenda'' (chief royal treasurer) all products had to be handed over to the Casa, taxed and sold at an agreed price with the proceeds paid to the owners.
===Cartography===
[[File:Cantino_planisphere_(1502).jpg|thumb|left|250px|The [[Cantino planisphere]] is the only surviving copy of the ''[[Padrão Real]]'', the secretive master-map of the world produced by the Casa da Índia's cartographers.]]
The Casa da Índia produced a secret map called the ''[[Padrão Real]]'', one of the first [[early world maps]]. The [[Cantino planisphere]] is the only existing copy of the ''Padrão Real''.
The [[Teixeira planisphere]] was made by Domingos Teixeira in 1573.
===Customs===
The ''Casa da Índia'' worked as [[customs]], central accounting office for funds and products in various overseas offices, [[archive]], [[warehouse]] management, personnel authority of sailors, soldiers and traders, as well as one of the world's first [[postal service]]s.
It fixed the prices and checked purchases, sales and payments. And also fitted the fleets, gathered the necessary military convoys, managed incoming and outgoing vessels and set out the various certificates and licenses. Through the Casa da Índia the royal officials were appointed overseas, and royal decrees and regulations were spread.
Between 1506 and 1570, Casa da Índia enforced the royal monopoly on all imports and sales of [[spices]] - pepper, cloves, and cinnamon - silk and [[shellac]], as well as on the export of gold, silver, copper and [[coral]], and levied a 30 percent tax on the profits of other articles.
===Royal monopolies===
[[File:Lisbon, Portugal (43216359132) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|250px|[[Ribeira Palace]], headquarters of the Casa da Índia, and the [[Praça do Comércio|Terreiro do Paço]] (Palace Square) in [[Lisbon]] in the 18th century.]]
The royal monopoly on [[copper]] exports especially made great gains, as copper was in high demand in India and West Africa, to where it was exported in the form of armlets called ''[[manillas]]'', which served as a form of [[money]].<ref>[[Copper]] was the "red gold" of Africa, exported as ''[[manillas]]'', the ring-like armlets which served as a form of [[money]] or [[barter]] coinage amongst certain [[West African]] peoples in Guinea Coast, [[Gold Coast (region)|Gold Coast]], see Chamberlain, C. C.(1963). The Teach Yourself ''Guide to Numismatics''. English Universities Press. P. 92. From contemporary records, we know the earliest Portuguese were made in Antwerp; between 1504 and 1507 Portugal exported 287,813 ''manillas'' into [[Guinea]] via San Jorge da Mina. vide Einzig, Paul (1949). ''Primitive Money in its ethnological, historical and economic aspects.'' Eyre & Spottiswoode. London. P. 155.</ref> From 1495 to 1521 the Portuguese Crown bought in [[Antwerp]], then the center of international trade, approximately 5,200 tonnes copper mainly from the [[Fugger]] of Hungary ([[Thurzo]]-Fugger company), which was shipped mostly to India.
In 1506, about 65% of the state income was produced on overseas activity. The monopoly of trade remained profitable until 1570, and strengthened the equity and credit capacity of Portugal. The share of the Crown's total trade with Asia in 1506 amounted to about 25% and increased steadily to 50% or more, but never entirely displaced the private traders: the trade monopoly was accompanied always by free trade in other products such as textiles, weapons, paper and salted fish, such as Bacalhau.
Royal monopolies were also leased out sometimes by Casa da Índia to private traders for a certain period. After 1570, the monopolies were abolished, except for the purchase of spices and the trade in copper and silver.
==See also==
*[[Casa de Contratación]], the Spanish counterpart of the Casa da Índia
*[[Company of Guinea]]
*[[Age of Discovery]]
*[[Portuguese Discoveries]]
*[[Portuguese Renaissance]]
*[[Economic history of Portugal]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Notes==
* ''Note on the Castiglioni Planisphere'', Armando Cortesao, Imago Mundi, Vol. 11, 1954 (1954), pp. 53–55
* House of India, Encyclopædia Britannica.
* ''The Dating of the Oldest Portuguese Charts'', Alfredo Pinheiro Marques, Imago Mundi, Vol. 41, 1989 (1989), pp. 87–97
* ''Brazil depicted in early maps'', Arthur Dürst, Cartographica Helvetica 6 (1992) 8–16.
* [http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/payne12.htm ''Sixteenth-Century Portugal, Chapter Twelve of A History of Spain and Portugal'', Stanley G. Payne, THE LIBRARY OF IBERIAN RESOURCES ONLINE, Volume 1.]
{{Chartered companies}}
{{History of Europe}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Chartered companies]]
[[Category:Defunct companies of Portugal]]
[[Category:Colonial Indian companies]]
[[Category:Economic history of Portugal]]
[[Category:Maritime history of Portugal]]
[[Category:Trading companies of Portugal]]
[[Category:Portuguese India]]
[[Category:Portuguese India Armadas]]
[[Category:Portuguese in Kerala]]
[[Category:1434 establishments in Portugal]]
[[Category:1833 disestablishments in Portugal]]
[[Category:Organizations established in the 1430s]]
[[Category:Organizations disestablished in the 19th century]]
[[Category:Monarchy and money]]
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