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Forgotten Trade: How Portugal's Cartaz System Ruled the Indian Ocean
Before the British Raj, before the Dutch East India Company, the Portuguese Estado da Índia controlled the Indian Ocean with a simple piece of paper: the cartaz. This naval license system, pioneered by Afonso de Albuquerque after the capture of Malacca in 1511, forced every vessel from the Red Sea to the South China Sea to buy a pass or face seizure. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the cartaz turned trade into tribute, why local rulers from the Zamorin of Calicut to the Sultan of Gujarat resisted, and how Portuguese patrols enforced their monopoly with brutal efficiency. They also…
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