Costa, Leonor FreirePalma, NunoReis, JaimeUniversidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Historia Económica e Instituciones2013-11-112013-11-112013-10-31https://hdl.handle.net/10016/17891Newly assembled macroeconomic statistics for early modern Portugal reveal one of Europe’s most vigorous colonial traders and at the same time one of its least successful growth records. Using an estimated model in the spirit of Allen (2009) we conclude that intercontinental trade had a substantial and increasingly positive impact on economic growth. In the heyday of colonial expansion, eliminating the economic links to empire would have reduced Portugal’s per capita income by roughly a fifth. While the empire helped the domestic economy it was not sufficient to annul the tendency towards decline in relation to Europe’s advanced core which set in from the 17th century onwards. We conclude that the explanation for Portugal’s long-term backwardness must be sought primarily in domestic conditionsapplication/pdfengAtribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 EspañaThe European Little DivergenceEarly Modern Economic GrowthEconomics of Empiresworking paperN10N13N70N74O47O57EconomíaHistoriaopen accesswp13-07