<P> Spanish imperial trade networks now were opened to Portuguese merchants, which was particularly lucrative for Portuguese slave traders who could now sell slaves in Spanish America at a higher price than could be fetched in Brazil . In addition to this newly acquired access to the Spanish asientos, the Portuguese were able to solve their bullion shortage issues with access to the production of the silver mining in Peru and Mexico . Manila was also incorporated into the Macau - Nagasaki trading network, allowing Macanese of Portuguese descent to act as trading agents for Philippine Spaniards and use Spanish silver from the Americas in trade with China, and they later drew competition with the Dutch East India Company . </P> <P> In 1592, during the war with Spain, an English fleet captured a large Portuguese carrack off the Azores, the Madre de Deus, which was loaded with 900 tons of merchandise from India and China estimated at half a million pounds (nearly half the size of English Treasury at the time). This foretaste of the riches of the East galvanized English interest in the region . That same year, Cornelis de Houtman was sent by Dutch merchants to Lisbon, to gather as much information as he could about the Spice Islands . </P> <P> The Dutch eventually realized the importance of Goa in breaking up the Portuguese empire in Asia . In 1583, merchant and explorer Jan Huyghen van Linschoten (1563--8 February 1611), formerly the Dutch secretary of the Archbishop of Goa, had acquired information while serving in that position that contained the location of secret Portuguese trade routes throughout Asia, including those to the East Indies and Japan . It was published in 1595; the text was then included in the larger volume published in 1596 under the title "Itinerario: voyage, ofte schipvaert van Jan Huygen van Linschoten naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien, 1579--1592, Volume 2, Issue 2, by Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Linschoten - Vereeniging (Hague, Netherlands)". Dutch and English interests used this new information, leading to their commercial expansion, including the foundation of the English East India Company in 1600, and the Dutch East India Company in 1602 . These developments allowed the entry of chartered companies into the East Indies . </P> <P> The Dutch took their fight overseas, attacking Spanish and Portuguese colonies and beginning the Dutch--Portuguese War, which would last for over sixty years (1602--1663). Other European nations, such as Protestant England, assisted the Dutch Empire in the war . The Dutch attained victories in Asia and Africa with assistance of various indigenous allies, eventually wrenching control of Malacca, Ceylon, and São Jorge da Mina . The Dutch also had regional control of the lucrative sugar - producing region of northeast Brazil as well as Luanda, but the Portuguese regained these territories after considerable struggle . </P>

During the age of exploration portugal concentrated on developing control of territory to its