Publication Date
2012
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The Hirschvogel family was established at the end of the 15th century in Nuremberg, High Germany, and rose to the aristocracy of the city during the following century, devoting themselves to trade. Their rapid social ascension was mostly the result of their successful commercial relations with Venice, which led to extending their business in Europe.
Close kinship connections with Nuremberg families like the Imhoffs and the Behaims played a decisive role when the House of Hirschvogel tried to establish economic relationships with the Portuguese Crown. The first contact with Portugal must have been established through Martin Behaim (1459-1507), a famous Nuremberg merchant and adventurer, who was at the service of the Hirschvogels in Antwerp in the first half of 1484. That same year, he departed to Lisbon and was knighted by King Dom João II in February 1485, before participating in a voyage to the west coast of Africa. During his prolonged stay in his native city in the 1490s, Martin Behaim was able to attract the attention of the large Nuremberg commercial houses to the Portuguese overseas expansion. The Behaims and the Hirschvogels were connected by marriage. Martin Behaim was the nephew of Lienhart Hirschvogel, who was the head of the company between 1440 and 1490, and a cousin of Lienhart II (1440-1525), who led the company during the first quarter of the 16th century.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the Hirschvogels decided to maintain a permanent agency in the Portuguese capital. After the arrival of the first spices from the Indian Ocean region via the Cape Route, several commercial houses from High Germany sent their agents to the Portuguese Court to negotiate directly with King Dom Manuel I. They requested that privileges be granted them in Portuguese territory in order to participate directly in the overseas trade, intending to establish trading posts in Lisbon. The exact date when the Hirschvogels became established in the city of the Tagus is not known; however, their trading post is proven to exist as of the second half of 1506. As of 1505, they had participated in a trip to India. They invested a capital of 2,000 of the 65,400 cruzados that a consortium of German companies and Italian merchants invested in three of the ships in Dom Francisco de Almeida’s fleet. Ulrich Imhoff, one of the brothers-in-law of Lienhart Hirschvogel (II), traveled with the fleet aboard the São Jerónimo. The consortium’s investment resulted in a profit of nearly 150% but remained a unique event, as King Dom Manuel I, who monopolized the pepper trade, impeded the delivery of the merchandise to which the consortium was entitled.
Ulrich Imhoff and Wolf Behaim, Martin Behaim’s younger brother, were the first factors of the Hirschvogels in Lisbon. Both of them died there in 1507, probably of the plague. In the following years, only very scant news exist regarding the commercial activities of the Hirschvogels in Portugal; however, in the middle of the second decade of the 16th century, they relaunched their business there, specializing in the commerce of precious stones. With the Augsburg Herwarts, they became the only German companies that bought precious stones and pearls directly in India. To this effect, they sent their commercial agents, Lazarus Nürnberger and Jörg Pock, to Asia. Lazarus Nürnberger traveled with António de Saldanha’s fleet in 1517, aboard the Santiago (the large one). His stay in the Malabar Coast 1517-1518, as an employee of the Hirschvogels, allowed for observing the market and the political situation in the Indian Ocean region. Jörg Pock’s mission lasted longer. As representative of the Hirschvogels and Herwarts, he traveled to India in 1520, with Jorge de Brito’s fleet, remaining there until his death in 1529. The letter he sent in January 1522 from Cochin to Nuremberg reveals his very critical stance toward the Portuguese governance of the Estado da India, which had led to a sharp economic crisis and the stagnation of the pepper trade. His interests as a merchant were in precious stones first, mainly diamonds from Vijayanagar, the Hindu Kingdom of Bisnaga (or Narsinga), where he stayed for several months in 1521. The purchase and sale of precious stones had a fundamental role in the plans of the Hirschvogels, becoming the most profitable line of trade of this commercial house in the 1520s.
They introduced wool and linen products in Portugal and, after the end of the second decade of the 16th century, mostly precious metals, which were constantly sought by the Portuguese Crown, as a means of exchange in the colonial trade. Between 1517 and 1524, the Hirschvogel factors, Joachim Prunner (in the Portuguese documents: “Jouchin”), Jörg Pock (“Pollo”), Friedrich Löner (“Frederico Lomer”) and Christoph Spaigel (“Christovão Spavel”), furnished considerable amounts of silver to the Royal Mint.
From 1525 on, the profits obtained by the Hirschvogels in overseas trade were not sufficient, in the long run, to cover the growing indebtedness of the company, which began declining in the fourth decade of the 16th century. Around 1532, they closed their trading post in Lisbon and left Portugal permanently.
Bibliography:
EHRHARDT, Marion, A Alemanha e os Descobrimentos Portugueses, Lisboa, Texto, 1989; KELLENBENZ, Hermann, “The Portuguese Discoveries and the Italian and German Initiatives in the Indian Trade in the first two Decades on the 16th Century”, in: Congresso internacional «Bartolomeu Dias e a sua Época». Actas, vol. 3, Porto, Universidade do Porto, 1989, pp. 609-623; idem (ed.), Fremde Kaufleute auf der Iberischen Halbin¬sel, Köln/ Wien, Böhlau, 1970; POHLE, Jürgen, Deutschland und die überseeische Expansion Portugals im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, Münster, Lit, 2000; SCHAPER, Christa, Die Hirschvogel von Nürnberg und ihr Handelshaus, Nürnberg, Verein für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg, 1973.
Translated by: Maria João Pimentel
Close kinship connections with Nuremberg families like the Imhoffs and the Behaims played a decisive role when the House of Hirschvogel tried to establish economic relationships with the Portuguese Crown. The first contact with Portugal must have been established through Martin Behaim (1459-1507), a famous Nuremberg merchant and adventurer, who was at the service of the Hirschvogels in Antwerp in the first half of 1484. That same year, he departed to Lisbon and was knighted by King Dom João II in February 1485, before participating in a voyage to the west coast of Africa. During his prolonged stay in his native city in the 1490s, Martin Behaim was able to attract the attention of the large Nuremberg commercial houses to the Portuguese overseas expansion. The Behaims and the Hirschvogels were connected by marriage. Martin Behaim was the nephew of Lienhart Hirschvogel, who was the head of the company between 1440 and 1490, and a cousin of Lienhart II (1440-1525), who led the company during the first quarter of the 16th century.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the Hirschvogels decided to maintain a permanent agency in the Portuguese capital. After the arrival of the first spices from the Indian Ocean region via the Cape Route, several commercial houses from High Germany sent their agents to the Portuguese Court to negotiate directly with King Dom Manuel I. They requested that privileges be granted them in Portuguese territory in order to participate directly in the overseas trade, intending to establish trading posts in Lisbon. The exact date when the Hirschvogels became established in the city of the Tagus is not known; however, their trading post is proven to exist as of the second half of 1506. As of 1505, they had participated in a trip to India. They invested a capital of 2,000 of the 65,400 cruzados that a consortium of German companies and Italian merchants invested in three of the ships in Dom Francisco de Almeida’s fleet. Ulrich Imhoff, one of the brothers-in-law of Lienhart Hirschvogel (II), traveled with the fleet aboard the São Jerónimo. The consortium’s investment resulted in a profit of nearly 150% but remained a unique event, as King Dom Manuel I, who monopolized the pepper trade, impeded the delivery of the merchandise to which the consortium was entitled.
Ulrich Imhoff and Wolf Behaim, Martin Behaim’s younger brother, were the first factors of the Hirschvogels in Lisbon. Both of them died there in 1507, probably of the plague. In the following years, only very scant news exist regarding the commercial activities of the Hirschvogels in Portugal; however, in the middle of the second decade of the 16th century, they relaunched their business there, specializing in the commerce of precious stones. With the Augsburg Herwarts, they became the only German companies that bought precious stones and pearls directly in India. To this effect, they sent their commercial agents, Lazarus Nürnberger and Jörg Pock, to Asia. Lazarus Nürnberger traveled with António de Saldanha’s fleet in 1517, aboard the Santiago (the large one). His stay in the Malabar Coast 1517-1518, as an employee of the Hirschvogels, allowed for observing the market and the political situation in the Indian Ocean region. Jörg Pock’s mission lasted longer. As representative of the Hirschvogels and Herwarts, he traveled to India in 1520, with Jorge de Brito’s fleet, remaining there until his death in 1529. The letter he sent in January 1522 from Cochin to Nuremberg reveals his very critical stance toward the Portuguese governance of the Estado da India, which had led to a sharp economic crisis and the stagnation of the pepper trade. His interests as a merchant were in precious stones first, mainly diamonds from Vijayanagar, the Hindu Kingdom of Bisnaga (or Narsinga), where he stayed for several months in 1521. The purchase and sale of precious stones had a fundamental role in the plans of the Hirschvogels, becoming the most profitable line of trade of this commercial house in the 1520s.
They introduced wool and linen products in Portugal and, after the end of the second decade of the 16th century, mostly precious metals, which were constantly sought by the Portuguese Crown, as a means of exchange in the colonial trade. Between 1517 and 1524, the Hirschvogel factors, Joachim Prunner (in the Portuguese documents: “Jouchin”), Jörg Pock (“Pollo”), Friedrich Löner (“Frederico Lomer”) and Christoph Spaigel (“Christovão Spavel”), furnished considerable amounts of silver to the Royal Mint.
From 1525 on, the profits obtained by the Hirschvogels in overseas trade were not sufficient, in the long run, to cover the growing indebtedness of the company, which began declining in the fourth decade of the 16th century. Around 1532, they closed their trading post in Lisbon and left Portugal permanently.
Bibliography:
EHRHARDT, Marion, A Alemanha e os Descobrimentos Portugueses, Lisboa, Texto, 1989; KELLENBENZ, Hermann, “The Portuguese Discoveries and the Italian and German Initiatives in the Indian Trade in the first two Decades on the 16th Century”, in: Congresso internacional «Bartolomeu Dias e a sua Época». Actas, vol. 3, Porto, Universidade do Porto, 1989, pp. 609-623; idem (ed.), Fremde Kaufleute auf der Iberischen Halbin¬sel, Köln/ Wien, Böhlau, 1970; POHLE, Jürgen, Deutschland und die überseeische Expansion Portugals im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, Münster, Lit, 2000; SCHAPER, Christa, Die Hirschvogel von Nürnberg und ihr Handelshaus, Nürnberg, Verein für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg, 1973.
Translated by: Maria João Pimentel