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According to Borges de Macedo, this organization contributes to the fact that the work represents the first political history within Portuguese historiography that “organically includes an economic history defined as such” (Jorge Borges de Macedo, A «História de Portugal nos Séculos XVII e XVIII» e o seu Autor, 1971, p.100). Rebelo da Silva showed a similar concern when he wrote his Memória sobre a População e a Agricultura de Portugal (Memoir on the Population and the Agriculture of Portugal) in which he also integrated important details of economic and social history.
For most of the period when he was working on the História de Portugal nos séculos XVII e XVIII, he was at the same time teaching at the Curso Superior de Letras (Higher School of Letters) and we may assume that what he taught was closely aligned to the objectives and themes that he favoured in his own research. He was part of the teaching body (1859-1871) and as teacher of the História Pátria e Universal (History of Portugal and Universal History) course, he became the principal figure in the School where, in addition to carrying out his teaching duties, he also held the posts of Dean and Secretary. Adolfo Coelho considered that of all the School’s original teachers Rebelo da Silva was the one who most clearly embraced the scientific and pedagogic tendencies of his time (Le Cours Supérieur de Lettres, 1900, pp. 33-34). His lectures were improvised and he spoke vigorously and eloquently before a large audience using a discourse replete with images. The monarch himself used to assiduously attend his classes at times. The three course programmes we know of written by Rebelo da Silva for História Pátria e Universal (1860-1861, 1865-1866 and 1870-1871) show how he successively broadened the content. Although structurally nationalist, the programmes were presented as exercises in the history of civilisation, favouring on some occasions a general perspective of the historical evolution of Western Europe, while on others seeking to integrate the history of Portugal within the European whole (Sérgio Campos Matos, Historiografia e memória nacional, 1998, p. 178).
