Merchants, Renegades, Padres explores the Portuguese presence in Bengal and Arakan to rethink the broader dynamics of early modern empire in Asia. It argues that private traders and renegades in these regions did not function at the empire’s margins but formed essential components of its economic, political, and cultural fabric. Their activities reveal the interdependence of formal and informal forces that sustained Portuguese power across the Bay of Bengal, in particular, and over the Indian Ocean, more generally.

Earlier scholarship posited strict distinctions between ‘official’ and ‘private’ authority, and between areas within and beyond state control. In doing so, it obscured the fluid and adaptive nature of early modern imperial polities. By contrast, this book reveals an empire built on shifting alliances, overlapping jurisdictions, and contested claims to authority.