Roles of Foreigners in Estado da India?

[Tanc49]

So, I'm doing some light research for my podcast on the VoC and I see that Linschoten, writer of the Itinerario was posted in Goa for a few years.
He was Dutch during a time if war of independence, which raises other questions, but he did meet other Dutchmen in the Indies.
We also have records of foreign merchants on Portuguese ships.
Yet the Portuguese were notoriously paranoid and secretive about the route to the Indies. How do you square those things?
@raharris1973 would you know?

 

[The Tai-Pan]

Secrecy is relative. All it takes is one copy of a log or chart, which isn't much. History is more full of random wanderers far from home then you might think.

 

[Tanc49]

Secrecy is relative. All it takes is one copy of a log or chart, which isn't much. History is more full of random wanderers far from home then you might think.

No of course, the question is more how much the Estado allowed foreigners in

 

[raharris1973]

So, I'm doing some light research for my podcast on the VoC and I see that Linschoten, writer of the Itinerario was posted in Goa for a few years.
He was Dutch during a time if war of independence, which raises other questions, but he did meet other Dutchmen in the Indies.
We also have records of foreign merchants on Portuguese ships.
Yet the Portuguese were notoriously paranoid and secretive about the route to the Indies. How do you square those things?
@raharris1973 would you know?

Sorry Tanc49, I don't have any special knowledge or expertise in this.