Lisbon Port Entry List for Colonial American Ships, 1771

This is just one example of thousands of pages and documents that the Portuguese use to manage and record the trade coming in and out of their ports. The one chosen here is particularly interesting as the 7th entry (2nd from bottom) shows that an English ship has arrived and paid duties for its cargo. It says the following: “Carlos Chevalier Master of the Ship Resolution which came from Philadelphia with flour and goes to San Miguel [in the Azores] with the cargo that is available in port has paid entry, freightage and twenty percent of 191 tons totally nineteen thousand, two hundred and fifty-two reis [Portuguese currency].” In short, the ship arrived in Lisbon, paid its dues according to a percentage of the tonnage of goods it was bringing into port, and it plans to pick up a cargo in San Miguel which will be determined by what is available when they arrive. This is yet another example of trans-imperial trade between the colonies and Portugal, and in this particular case this ship does not appear in the official record of entries and clearances in Philadelphia, likely an example of outright smuggling. 
This source is part of the teaching module on global approaches to trade in colonial North America.