This project will answer the question: how did New Christian expertise in material culture influence consumption patterns where they lived and traded? This question addresses a historiographical gap between material culture, consumption, and social agents involved in intercontinental trade. The hypothesis that undergirds this project is that the liminal condition in which the New Christians were placed – forced to convert but never fully integrated under constant suspicion and prosecution from the Inquisition – favoured their diaspora, resilient networks, and innovative behaviour across continents.
Professor Francisco Bethencourt
05 February 2026
New Christian Materiality project secures major European Research Council grant
New Christian Materiality, 1450-1750 (MATERIA) is the first European Research Council Advanced Grant hosted by the Department of History.
Professor Francisco Bethencourt has been awarded a European Research Council Advanced Grant for his project, New Christian Materiality, 1450-1750 (MATERIA), a landmark for King's Department of History.
At the centre of the project is the New Christian trading elite, descending from Jewish communities forced to convert between 1391 and 1498 in Iberia, who were at the forefront of intercontinental trade from the late fifteenth to the early eighteenth centuries. They became experts on material culture, sourced commodities from different continents, and developed markets.
The project team also includes postdocs, Ana Paula Lloyd and Maria Ines Godinho Guarda.
This is a global project, based on extensive archival research, that will identify how diversified expertise was built, how links between production and trade were established, how gendered consumption developed, and how houses were built and decorated to enhance status and marketing. For the first time, an ethnic group will be the object of a global project of research concerning material culture and patterns of consumption.
We’re delighted to be hosting this important project in the Department of History. The work of Professor Bethencourt and his team will significantly advance our understanding of early modern cultures of consumption, on a global scale. It will further advance King’s reputation as one of the UK’s leading centres for the study of the history of the world, across all continents and time periods.
Professor Paul Readman, Head of Department, Department of History
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Charles Boxer Professor of History