Following the establishment of Macau in 1557 at its strategic position near Guangzhou (Canton), the port became a very important hub for the Portuguese within local and transcontinental trade circuits, most especially for the trading of silk and its products. This talk focused on textile trading history and the relationship between Macau and Lisbon/Portugal in the early modern period. It aimed to analyse the role of Macao as a trade centre and its possible involvement in the production of Chinese export textiles for the Portuguese.

Dr Maria João Ferreira is currently curator at the Museu de São Roque in Lisbon and researcher at CHAM at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the New University of Lisbon. She is the author of several studies and publications in the field of Asian and European textile production and consumption in Portugal during the early modern period