Among the solutions devised by early modern Western European states to engage with the private sector in the governance of their overseas empires, the adjudication of revenue farms and colonial monopolies was often dismissed by historians on the grounds of being coercive, inefficient, and risk-exempt for the contractors. In reality, however, the threat of financial hardship and insolvency was very real, and not infrequently led to contractual removal, the seizure of collateralized assets, and even the imprisonment of the concessionaires. This article approaches the neglected topic of failure in big business in early seventeenth-century Portugal, an overlooked case of a contractor state that relied extensively on the adjudication of government contracts to finance and rule its overseas empire. By looking into the downward trajectories of two tax-farmers and the collapse of their contractual dealings, light will be shed on how the Crown and private entrepreneurs reacted to the repercussions of failure in these early modern public-private partnerships. It will also be shown how the road leading to termination was very much shaped by the political relationships between the Crown and its contractors and can only be understood in the context of wider relationships of brokerage, credit, and service between the two.

中文翻译：

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殖民承包的考验：对葡萄牙哈布斯堡两个失败的国营私营企业的反应和影响（1622-1628）

在早期现代西欧国家为让私营部门参与其海外帝国的治理而设计的解决方案中，历史学家经常以强制性、低效和风险豁免为由驳回对税收农场和殖民垄断的裁决。对于承包商。然而，在现实中，财务困难和破产的威胁是非常真实的，经常导致合同解除、抵押资产被没收，甚至特许权获得者被监禁。本文探讨了 17 世纪早期葡萄牙大企业失败这一被忽视的话题，这是一个被忽视的承包国案例，该国广泛依赖政府合同的裁决来资助和统治其海外帝国。通过研究两个税收农民的下降轨迹和他们合同交易的崩溃，将揭示政府和私人企业家如何应对这些早期现代公私合作失败的影响。还将展示导致终止的道路如何在很大程度上受到官方与其承包商之间的政治关系的影响，并且只能在两者之间更广泛的经纪、信贷和服务关系的背景下理解。