I always used to wonder how those great piles of stone that are Goa's Churches came up. The sheer mechanics of putting up those structures between the 17th and 18th centuries is mind-boggling given that all the building technology that is available today was non-existent then. And what about the money needed to erect those buildings? Labourers don't work on empty stomachs. I think Ernestine Carreira's *Globalising Goa (1660-1820): Change and exchange in a former capital of empire* helps answer some if not all of such questions.
In the past, Goa was not just some sleepy old backwater as some think it even today, but one of the most important staging posts of Portugal's maritime empire. In fact Goa was the capital of Portugal's eastern possessions and extended from Mozambique to Macao to Timor among other places, and the Goa Church controlled religious activities there and as a result of this people from all over the world came on pilgrimage to Goa. Carreira's Globalising Goa is a history for historians, for to comfortably keep up with her roving camera as it pans from Portugal to Brazil to India; or it zooms into India where the French, the British, the Dutch and the Portuguese were vying for space in the period of the 17th to the 19th century when this study is located, requires a knowledge of history that is both extensive in scope as well as scholarly in detail of the regions it examines. Nevertheless Globalising Goa is also of interest to the general reader. Carreira suggests that during the period of study Goa was the center of an empire in an age when ports generally tended to be centers and was also a place which different powers eyed greedily hoping to make it their own stepping stone into India and from there. However by the 19th century Goa as a power-center had diminished considerably especially after the Asian and African possessions of the Portuguese were divested from it; and the influence of Portugal had decreased on account of Brazil, the backbone of its economy gaining independence. The word 'Globalizing' in the title is a bit confusing as we tend to strongly associate this word with very modern developments, which often are linked to concepts like 'Liberalization' and 'Multi-National Culture' and all the baggage that these words carry. However it might be possible to separate the author's thesis from the insights offered in her discussion of the period, in which case it ceases to be a problem. The production values of the book, including the cover illustration, the printing and binding suggests that for a small publishing house Goa 1556 is rapidly getting there. Having a scholar like Carreira choose to be a part of its catalogue can't do it any harm either. Augusto -- Augusto Pinto 40, Novo Portugal Moira, Bardez Goa, India E [email protected] P 0832-2470336 M 9881126350
