| Description |
There is significant debate concerning whether or not the Company of Jesus should be considered a modern corporation. There are those who support this view, such as Magnus Morner and C.R. Boxer, while others, such as Dauril Alden, are critical of it. Much of the debate is centered on the economic activities of the Jesuits between 1534 and 1771, and the networks they created for the transit of material goods. I have taken this debate and cast it into a new light by evaluating whether or not the Company of Jesus would qualify as a modern corporation in terms of a religious economy. To assess the comparative success of the Jesuits, I have drawn on the work of Michael Porter and his "diamond" model and applied it to the Jesuit endeavors within Portugal and Portuguese Brazil. The Jesuits embody three of the four primary determinants used by Porter in his model: the availability of factor endowments, the success of related and supporting industries, and the presence of internal aspects such as an effective organizational structure and responses to domestic rivalry. The Jesuits possessed advanced factor endowments, such as an extensive communication infrastructure, enabling them to connect civilizations around the world. Additionally, the success of the Portuguese colonial empire paralleled the success of the Company of Jesus. Finally, the sufficiently centralized administrative structure of the Order, as well as the Catholic Counter-Reformation and subsequent resurgence of many religious orders, acted as catalysts to the Jesuit's overall success. These three contributing factors, factor endowments, the success of the Portuguese colonial empire, and a centralized administrative structure, gave the Jesuits a competitive advantage and placed them in a dominant position on the global religious market. However, there are still two primary shortcomings to this perspective. The first is that the Jesuits were far too reliant on European governance, specifically the Portuguese Empire, and therefore lacked independence. The second major shortcoming is the apparent lack of demand for Catholicism. The relationship between supply and demand is the fourth and final aspect of Porter's model which, unfortunately, the Jesuits do not embody. |
