Plata es Sangre: Sidelights on the Drain of Spanish-American Silver in the Far East, 1550-1700

Boxer, C. R.

doi:10.4324/9781315255965-7

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Nevertheless, the Mexico City merchants were constrained by the interests of European merchants. For instance, due to the pressure of the commercial elite of Seville, in 1593, the Crown limited the freight value of the galleons cargoes to 250.000 pesos for Manila and to 500.000 pesos for Acapulco (Boxer, 2017). As I develop in Section 6, this is a signal of a complex hierarchical structure underlying the Manila Galleon.…”

Section: New Spaniard Merchants In Acapulcomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Manila, most of the commercial business were controlled by the Chinese community. 14 Chinese merchants-usually called Sangley-had settled in Manila several decades before the arrival of Spaniards, and were already connected to the most important commercial networks of the region (Chia, 2006;Boxer, 2017). However, the trade with America generated a massive migration from China, in particular from Fujian.…”

Section: Chinese Merchants In Manilamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only two ships a year were allowed to sail. The cargo of these ships could not exceed 300 tons of weight(Boxer, 2017). Smuggling, nevertheless, was a regular activity in this trade route.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The economics of the Manila Galleon

Mejia

2021

JCEFTS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose This paper aims to offer a unified economic interpretation of the existing evidence on the Manila Galleon. It intends to be an introduction to the Manila Galleon for economists curious about long-term patterns in global trade, but who are not experts on economic history. Design/methodology/approach The paper jointly presents quantitative and qualitative data to analyze in a critical way the existing work on the Manila Galleon. It proposes a conceptual model from the world-systems approach to reflect on the impact of this trade route. Evidence from two case studies, New Granada and Korea, accompany the model. Findings The paper finds that the Manila Galleon was only possible because of the temporary coincidence of a quite singular set of international circumstances and favorable local market conditions. The paper also finds that, despite its large effects on the global integration of silver markets, the Manila Galleon was a profoundly asymmetric activity that brought minor consequences to most of the world. Research limitations/implications This paper shows the importance of additional studies providing systematic quantitative evidence on the Manila Galleon. The long tradition of an archival collection developed by historians offers a huge potential to this line of research. In addition, studies in regions different from Mexico, the Philippines, Spain and China would contribute to a better understanding of the Manila Galleon’s global consequences. Practical implications This paper provides a series of reflections useful to think about the future challenges of global trade. These challenges require understanding the transformations that will come from profound technological change, massive reconfigurations of the geopolitical order and transitions in the long-term cycles of commodities. Because of their rare occurrence, these are forces hardly visible in recent history, making it necessary for the existence of long-term points of reference such as the Manila Galleon. Originality/value This paper brings together widespread evidence on the Manila Galleon and provides a unified interpretation of it. This opens the door for audiences who are not experts on the economic history of the period to discuss the topic, allowing them to reflect on its lessons for the modern world.

show abstract

Section: New Spaniard Merchants In Acapulcomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chinese Merchants In Manilamentioning

confidence: 99%