Bohemian Linen, Brazilian Sugar and the Portuguese Inquisition. On the Margin of One Manuscript

Pages	84–88
DOI	10.37520/amnpsc.2022.011
Keywords	Bohemian entrepreneurs in the 18th century – Bohemian linen production, export and chemical innovations – Brazilian sugar import and refineries in Bohemia – Portugal – Inquisition
Type of Article	Miscellanea
Citation	BINKOVÁ, Simona. Bohemian Linen, Brazilian Sugar and the Portuguese Inquisition. On the Margin of One Manuscript. Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia litterarum. Prague: National Museum, 2022, 67(1-2), 84–88. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37520/amnpsc.2022.011. ISSN 2570-6861 (Print), 2570-687X (Online). Also available from: https://www.nm.cz/en/periodicals/acta-musei-nationalis-pragae-historia-litterarum/67-1-2/bohemian-linen-brazilian-sugar-and-the-portuguese-inquisition-on-the-margin-of-one-manuscript

Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia litterarum | 2022/67/1-2

In the 18th-century Habsburg empire, Bohemian linen (and glass) was an important export article for trade within Europe as well as with overseas regions. The aims of this article are to explain briefly the general context of these commercial activities, tied to the Iberian Peninsula, and, in particular, to focus on little or completely unknown facts, namely the relation of the brothers František and Václav Sperling from Náchod to Portugal. The trade involved not only the actual exportation of linen and its innovative final chemical processing (bleaching) in Bohemia and in Portugal as well as the commencement of the importation of Brazilian raw sugar and its refinement in Bohemia, but also the associated problem of the integration of foreigners into a different environment, in this case the integration of Central Europeans (often a priori suspected of heresy) into the predominantly Catholic area of the Iberian Peninsula.

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