The Galleon Trade1565 - 1815

The Manila Galleon or “Nap de China” was the first route to sail through the Pacific Ocean as a link between Asia and America. Through this route, and after having colonized Philippines, Spain controlled this commercial route for almost three centuries, uniting Seville, Philippines and Mexico.

The Manila-Acapulco galleon trade began when the Augustinian friar, Andrés de Urdaneta, sailing in convoy under Miguel López de Legazpi, discovered a return route from Cebu City to Mexico in 1565.

The galleon trade started in the same year; the first galleon sailed from Cebu. Until 1593 there were two Philippine cities involved in the trade: Cebu and Manila.

The trade served as the main source of income for the Philippines colony until early 1800’s.

Although the trade was officially ended in 1815 due to the Mexican War of Independence, the last of the galleons set sail in 1820.

Andres de Urdaneta

Known as the “longest shipping line in history,” a total of 110 galleons were used in the trade. 102 of the galleons were built in the Philippines while the other 8 in Mexico.2 were built in Cebu, some in Leyte, but most of the galleons were constructed in Cavite.

right: shipyard in Cavite

The galleons were the largest class of ships known to have been built anywhere up to that time. In the 16th century, they averaged from 1,700 to 2,000 tons, were built of Philippine hardwoods and could carry a thousand passengers. The Concepción, wrecked in 1638, was 43 to 49 m (140–160 feet) long and displacing some 2,000 tons. The Santísima Trinidad was 51.5 m long.

Main Trade Routes of the Global Economy controlled by Spain and Portugal

How the Philippines was connected to Spain / Europe:Manila – Acapulco, Mexico; Veracruz, Mexico – Seville, Spain

How Asia was connected to Manila:China – Manila (Sampan Trade); Portuguese Macau - Manila

India, Persia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. – ManilaHow Africa was connected to the Spanish Empire:

African trading ports – Portuguese Brazil; Portuguese Brazil – Trading ports in Spanish America

Manila

China: silk, porcelain, gemstones, ivory, jade, gold, other Chinese goods

Acapulco, Mexico (Nueva España)

Sampan trade

Japan: silverware, silk, other Japanese goods

Spice Islands (Moluccas): nutmeg, cloves, mace, pepper and other spices

Other parts of Southeast Asia: porcelain from Thailand and Vietnam, textiles, sandalwood, ivory, pepper and other spices

India and Persia: Jewels, carpets, damasks, spices, other goods

Philippines: hardwoods, textiles, bird’s nests, spices, pearls, mangoes, tamarind

Manila

Africa: coffee, ivory

Europe: Christianity, language, immigrants, priests, wines, olive oil, textiles, luxury products and other goods

Acapulco, Mexico

Americas: maize and Mexican silver currency (dollars) from Mexico, immigrants, priests, silver from Bolivia, gold, horses, cows, tobacco,

sugarcane, pineapples, vanilla, cacao; other plant products such as some flowering plants, orchids, and fruit trees like guavas, papayas, apples; vegetables such as eggplants, bitter gourd, squash, sayote, cigarillas, etc.

Root crops such as potatoes and peanuts from Peru, carrots, sweet potato and cassava (manioc)

A three-tiered economy emerged in the Philippines

First economy: characterized by monopoly – Spaniards who controlled and benefitted from the galleon trade in Manila

Second economy: dominated by Chinese and Chinese mestizos; characterized by retail and redistribution of goods bought at wholesale from the galleons;

Third economy: or native economy; characterized by small enterprises and subsistence agriculture

Effects of the Galleon Trade

The Philippines was drawn to what is now called the first world economy of modern times

Manila became the most important city in Asia in the 1600’s; other competing cities emerged in the 1700’s

The galleons became the means by which Hispanic culture was brought to the Philippines;Cultural exchange between Spanish America and the Philippines; the Philippines was integrated into the Hispano-world; migration between the Philippines and the rest of the empire

Because up to 80% of the crews manning the galleons were Philippine natives, Filipinos eventually became known as Asia’s ablest seamen

Since most of the galleons were built in the Philippines, the tradition of shipbuilding in the islands, already present before the Spaniards came, was continued although modified. Filipinos became known as great shipbuilders

Growth of the Chinese and Chinese-mestizo communities in the Philippines

Introduction of Mexican peso into Asia; the Philippine peso was derived from it

Introduction of plant products and animals from the Americas to the Philippines

Because it was the main economic activity that sustained the Philippine colony for 250 years, the massive exploitation of natives in plantations and mines that happened in the America did not occur in the Philippines until the galleon trade was abandoned in early 1800’s

But…

Since Manila was the only city opened to the trade, commerce in other port cities in the Philippines declined; Cebu, once a vibrant commercial entrepot linked to other ports in Asia, was reduced to a settlement the size of a small town

Since Manila only functioned as a trans-shipment point and commerce in other parts of the islands was discouraged, no genuine industries that inspired commercial and technological innovations among natives emerged; natives therefore became indolent

Abuse of native laborers and seamen in shipyards and in the ships

Profits in the trade were monopolized by Spaniards in Manila

Manila and other parts of the Philippines became an attractive target for privateers and other imperial powers: in 1574 the Chinese pirate ,Limahong, attacked Manila; in 1600 the Dutch blockaded the Manila galleons; in 1610, 1617, 1625, 1648 the Dutch attacked the Philippines; from 1762-64, the British occupied Manila

The Sampan Trade

Because direct trade with Spanish port cities in the Americas was prohibited, Chinese traders did commerce with Spaniards in Manila. This trade complimented the galleon trade and became known as the Sampan Trade. It is named after the kind of ships – sampan (Chinese junks) – used by Chinese merchants.

Attracted to the commercial prospects offered by the trade with the Spanish, a Chinese community steadily grew in Manila and other cities.

Coexistence between the Chinese and Spaniards was marked by distrust. Sometimes it resulted to rebellions which resulted to massacres of Chinese residents in Manila.

Since most of the Chinese who migrated to the Philippine colony were males, intermarriages between natives and Chinese occurred. The mestizo-Chinese were disconnected from their Chinese heritage because they lived in Hispanized households and given their own mestizo district. In times of conflict they tended to ally with themselves with the Spanish.

Photos from the internet

http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Galleon.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:16th_century_Portuguese_Spanish_trade_routes.pnghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Urdaneta_marinela_txikia.jpghttp://bustedracquet.us/ESW/Images/philippine_sampan.jpghttp://fourriverscharter.org/projects/Inventions/images/china_porcelain1.jpghttp://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/02/34802-004-67C8E08E.jpghttp://www.boomerdog.com/images/jewels.jpghttp://www.goldcobs.com/luzcoinpics/luzcoin4M.JPGhttp://www.dragonagro.com/Wimage/Vanilla%20planifolia.jpghttp://www.goldcobs.com/luzcoinpics/Lima1699R8pil.JPGhttp://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_64.164.172-.174.jpghttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5YUVSXlWLDk/SKEC1aMGhuI/AAAAAAAAACU/MTl9Cbi96XA/s320/old+chinese+junk+17+century.jpghttp://ns.gov.gu/icons/galleon1.jpghttp://www.aenet.org/manila-expo/p24ima12.jpg

Sources for the text

Legarda, Benito Jr. After the galleons : foreign trade, economic change & entrepreneurship in the nineteenth-century Philippines. Quezon City : ADMU Press, c1999.

http://www.explorandomexico.com/about-mexico/4/254/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_galleon