Introduction

Portugal was certainly not one of Europe’s largest, most significant fabric manufacturers in the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the country benefitted from a number of conditions which enabled its textile industry to develop products with unique features. Raw materials such as flax, wool and silk were available domestically, as were dyestuffs. Like most of the Iberian Peninsula, parts of the Portuguese territory were under Muslim occupation from the 8th to 13th centuries. As might be expected, that period of almost five and a half centuries left behind an important cultural legacy, which found its way into textile industries. A significant share of Portuguese textile-related terms has Arabic etymology, certainly not by accident. Those historical circumstances also facilitated the early adoption of the most important technological innovations for this industry, such as the horizontal loom.

According to research on urban history, textile crafts were among the most important medieval economic activities in Portugal. During the early 15th century, the municipality of Porto, an important city and port, imposed fixed wages for the various occupations. Weaving was one of the eight regulated activities, a testimony to its relevance within the city. In Alenquer, an average-sized town (43 km north of Lisbon), in the 15th century 104 people were employed as skilled artisans – 15% of the population. Of those 104, fifteen were weavers; only shoemakers (26) were more common. In her study on Évora, which featured statistics on the manufacturing sector’s economic agents between 1260 and 1500, Ângela Beirante compiled references to 106 weavers, an amount surpassed only by tailors (202) and shoemakers (193). Jewish workers played a prominent part in the production of fabrics, garments and accessories, with 187 Jewish weavers identifiable by name between 1440 and 1455, mostly in towns of the Além-Tejo comarca such as Estremoz, Elvas and Évora.

In spite of our relatively in-depth knowledge of textile fibre production (raw materials) and the significant percentage of labourers employed in this activity, traditional historiography has played down the role of domestic textile production. This, in turn, has led to an almost complete absence of references to the medieval Portuguese textile industry by foreign historians. This flawed perspective is based on the insufficient sources which had previously been available for studying trade, and resulted in a very incomplete portrait of reality.