| Resumo: | It is the main purpose of this article to show the relative failure of the Portuguese export sector during the second half of the 19th century. Such a failure was mainly due to a lack of ability to meet the stimulus of the external markets. The author suggests that, within the period between 1850 and 1913, the Portuguese economy might have benefited from a sustained growth of the export agricultural sector, if such a growth had fitted the changes occurred in the international food markets since the decade of 1880. This argument is based on the satisfactory increase of the world demand for products similar to those exported by Portugal within that period, and on the assumption that the implementation of a modern export agricultural sector would have been the most suitable way of taking advantage from the kind of Portuguese economic resources and from their position within the world economic context. |
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