Casa da Índia
The Casa da Índia (; English: India House or House of India) was a Portuguese state-run commercial organization during the Age of Discovery. It regulated international trade and the Portuguese Empire's territories, colonies, and factories (trading posts) across Asia and Africa. Central to the Casa da Índia's objectives was the establishment and protection of a Portuguese mare clausum ("closed sea" – total control of the seas) in the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Arabian sea, and the Indies. The House of India was founded by King Manuel I of Portugal in 1500 to direct Portugal's monopoly of the spice trade and to manage royal policy for Portuguese India. Following 1503, it absorbed the Casa da Guiné e Mina, an organization founded by Prince Henry the Navigator in 1443, which operated under a similar mandate for Portuguese Africa, thus making the Casa da Índia responsible for the regulation of all Portuguese imperial trade, the administration of Portuguese trading posts and military bases in Asia and Africa, and protection of the Portuguese Crown's commercial interests. Founded with the intent of protecting Portugal's monopoly of the spice trade, the Casa da Índia in 1497 began financing and organizing the Portuguese India Armadas, annual armadas