Abstract
The ambitious expansion of Spain’s empire to the Far East in the sixteenth century to capitalize on the riches of the spice trade was the impetus behind astonishing sea voyages from South America and Mexico across the Pacific to the Philippines. The Manila Galleon trade is best understood in the context of a nascent global economy and global trade. Routes in the China Sea that had existed for centuries were linked to routes pioneered or commandeered by Iberians. The flow of silver and gold to Asia and of goods in return to the Americas and ultimately to Europe were the foundation of the modern world system. This chapter examines the economic networks that evolved during the first two hundred years of the Manilla trade, its impact on economic systems, and the role the trade played in colonial administration on multiple continents.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to express my gratitude to Carola Deroy and the Pt. Reyes NPS for granting access to the porcelain from their collections for pXRF testing. I am also grateful to INAH and Edward Von der Porten, who organized the Baja California expeditions, for allowing me to test recovered ceramics.
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Meniketti, M. (2021). The Wreck of the Galleon San Agustín. A Case Study in Economics, Exploration, and European Development of the Pacific Rim. In: Williams, S.S., Junco, R. (eds) The Archaeology of Manila Galleons in the American Continent. SpringerBriefs in Archaeology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71524-3_6
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