De Bruijn & Cloots of Lisbon

Abstract This article examines the strategies and techniques used by foreign firms to encroach on the Portuguese Atlantic empire. It takes the Dutch firm De Bruijn & Cloots of Lisbon as a case study to analyse problems and solutions devised by foreign firms when expanding their trade operations to Brazilian ports. We analyse the variables that influenced their choice of agents and forms of agency, and the way in which problems of agency were mitigated. Based on their business correspondence, we demonstrate that the choice between the forms of trade agency available for circumventing the “colonial exclusive” depended not only on goals and strategies, but also on the amount of capital and types of goods firms could mobilize through the transnational business networks in which they were embedded. We also show that De Bruijn & Cloots used a comprehensive range of agency relationships, a strategy that was simultaneously combined with diversification in the number of agents the firm worked with to mitigate opportunistic behaviour.