Based on extensive archival research in Portugal, India, England, and France, this work provides the first monographic study of a crucial, yet hitherto ignored period in the history of Portugal's Asian empire: the years ca. 1640-1683. Ames' revisionist work demonstrates that, contrary to the traditional view of the inevitable decline and stagnation of the Estado da India after ca. 1640, these were years of innovative and dynamic reform which brought about the geo-political and economic stabilization of Portuguese Asia by 1683. The book details this fundamental shift in Crown policy toward Asia as initiated by Prince Regent Pedro of Braganza (1668-1702) and carried out most effectively by Viceroy Luis de Mendonca Furtado e Albuquerque.