Ninth in a series on Portuguese companies and investors in Asia — what they built, what survived, and what is still being built today. 立足港澳 · 橋連世界 Rooted in Hong Kong and Macau, bridging to the world. — Motto of 立橋銀行, Banco Well Link, Macau There is a bank in Macau that opens every day of the year. It has seven branches, a Chinese name, 立橋銀行 (Lìqiáo Yínháng in Chinese pinyin), and a Portuguese one, Banco Well Link. The two characters in its name, 立 and 橋, mean roughly to buil

My last post on the 15th century Portuguese merchant-spy Pêro da Covilhã prompted quite a bit of debate among some readers around how the history of the Portuguese Discoveries should be interpreted: celebrated as a glorious chapter of the proud history of Portugal, or dismissed as a shameful period of imperial rapaciousness and religious bigotry? I understand both points of view, but for me personally it's... just history. History that's hundreds of years old, but with echo

Portugal was united with Spain in 1580 by virtue of sharing the same king in the person of Philip (Filipe I in Portuguese). The Spanish...