A "Iberian integrated empire"? The arbitrism and the ultramarine Portuguese empire (1580-1640)

This article is about arbitristas and arbitrios focused in the Portuguese overseas empire during the period of the incorporation of Portugal and its empire in the Hispanic Monarchy (1580-1640). It addresses three problems. Firstly, it seeks to understand who were these arbitristas who wrote about the Portuguese overseas empire and what were the purposes of their texts and writings. Secondly, it seeks to apprehend, as far as possible, how the political decision-making centres of the monarchy received these documents. Thirdly, it examines to what extent these documents reflected the perception of an "integrated Iberian empire", where the Portuguese colonial territories were fully incorporated in the global politics of the monarchy.