Since 2000, there have been fewer studies released about the ?formal aspects ? of the operation of colonial powers, such as Portugal, in the East during the Early Modern period. Prior, the fall of Communism, in the last decade of the twentieth century, gave a boost to liberal ideology, while research into topics related to autocracy or state apparatus have become unfashionable. The Portuguese role in the East is usually overlooked, being less high-profile than that of the Dutch or British. Drawing on unpublished materials from the Overseas Historical Archive , and other libraries in Portugal, this book considers Portuguese leadership and organization at home, where it pertained to the governance of the eastern colonies; as well as the formal and ?soft ? instruments of state applied on the ground in these colonies in first half of the eighteenth century.