The Galleon Trade of 1565-1815

By Noralyn O. Dudt

GLOBALIZATION is not what one would associate with the 16^th and 17^th centuries  when ships with sails were the only means of transportation in crossing the great oceans and only horses and carriages in traversing the continents.  Jetting the globe on an airplane was still three centuries away. Globalization is what one may ascribe only to our modern era but the history of the  Galleon Trade between Manila and Acapulco tells otherwise. The Manila Galleons were the FEDEX of their time.  The Galleon Trade was the birth of what we now know as globalization.

It was in 1565 when the Galleon Trade was first launched. Manila galleons as they were called were the Spanish Trading ships that linked the Spanish General of the Philippines with New Spain  (now Mexico) for 250 years. It made one or two round-trip voyages per year: one from Acapulco to Manila that took 120 days with some 500,000 pesos worth of goods—mostly silver from Spain's South American colonies to be traded with exotic goods from China and the other parts of the Orient;  the other was the Manila to Acapulco trip that took 90 days at sea and carried 250,000 pesos worth of goods in porcelain, silk, ivory,  spices and myriad of exotic items. It then crossed Mexico overland for shipment to Spain.

It had only been 44 years in 1565  when Fernando Magallanes [Ferdinand Magellan] reached the Philippines after having sailed for 2 years from Spain's Sanlucar de Barrameda, crossing the Atlantic toward Central America, down to the straits south of Chile which later bore his name "Magellan Straits," and then on to the vast Pacific. The goal was to find a western maritime route to the Spice Islands. It was a journey considered by many as one of the most important events in history for its scientific, socio-economic, political, philosophic and theological consequences. At first, the Spanish conquistadors found difficulty returning East because they would be facing the  trade winds that had pushed their sails going West. Finally, Andres Urdaneta who had sailed with Magellan earlier, and Miguel Lopez de Legazpi found a better way eastward across the Pacific by going north to Japan and catching downward current to the southern coast of California with stops at San Francisco and Monterey Bay to pick up some needed provisions before going through the San Bernardino Straits and coasting south to Mexico.

Trade winds, also called Easterlies, are air currents closer to earth's surface that blow from east to west near the equator.  They were named by the crews of sailing ships that depended on the winds during westward ocean crossings. Sailors used them for centuries as they shortened a sea journey when sailing west.  Similarly, airplanes can use the wind boost from the jet stream to shorten journey flying east. The winds were very predictable so sailors tried to time their voyages in February or March when storms were infrequent.  The belt of the northeastern trade winds between 10-15 degree-latitude would rapidly take the galleons across the Pacific.

Each galleon formed its own isolated microcosm of the huge Spanish Empire. Crowded aboard ship were more than 300 people—government and military officials and the vessel's infantry contingent. The ship's company included officers and petty officers and a large crew of gunners, seamen, apprentices, and pages. According to a National Geographic 1991 issue, the mariners were a polyglot group,  speaking Spanish, Malay, Tagalog, and Mandarin. Passengers ran the social gamut from noble women, missionaries, secular priests, and nuns to chained "reos," or condemned prisoners.

It is worth noting that the Manila galleon trade made significant contributions to Spanish colonial culture. It helped fashion the very society of the Philippines which relied upon its revenues, its merchandise,  and the services of Chinese, Malays, and other participants.  Moreover, the galleons were the sole means of communication between Spain and her colonies—it served as an economic lifeline for the Spaniards in Manila.

Over the Galleon road, a "stream" of silver flowed from where it was cheap and plentiful, to where it was highly prized—a basic business concept that brought about the inception of globalization.  It ushered in economic and cultural exchange,  integration of financial markets between Asia and Europe by way of the Americas.  During its heyday, Manila being one of the world's great ports became a link that spanned much of the globe. Manila endowed with a natural harbor became the trading center of the Orient. Chinese merchants brought their goods to Manila to be loaded on the ships going to New Spain. Prized items  such as jade statues, forged iron work, paneled screens, lacquered writing tables,  porcelain, and silk were highly treasured in Europe and brought wealth to the Spanish treasury. The Philippines themselves furnished gold, copra and coconut-shell products, cotton cloth from the province of Ilocos Norte in Northern Luzon, cotton stockings and petticoats, and gauze made in Cebu. They also produced burlap, rope and hammocks  made from hemp. Skilled Chinese and Filipino artisans in Manila wrought delicate filigree jewelry and gold chains. The Ming and Ching dynasties' porcelain wares with rich deep colors, imaginative designs and quality glazes caught the fancy of the aristocrats of Europe. European artisans would not unlock the secret of making porcelain until the 18^th century.  As this Oriental ware called "chinoiserie" began to reach the West in quantity,  it increasingly influenced European styles. In turn the Chinese began to manufacture specifically for the West. Altarware as well as tableware were produced in vast quantities.  Christian images and crucifixes as well as children's toys and all kinds of bric-a-brac were loaded on the galleons.

The galleon ships were constructed in Cavite, a city southwest of Manila along Manila Bay where good timber, especially teak, was abundant.  Rigging for the galleons was fashioned from Manila hemp, a native Philippine plant still used in cordage. The sails were sewn in nearby Ilocos Norte, known for cotton cloth of excellent quality. The sails had to be huge and durable that could sail with the strong winds and that should last a long ocean voyage. Fastenings were forged by Spanish, Chinese or Filipino smiths. The iron came from China and Japan.

Unfortunately, with the Spanish colonial government intense focus on the trade, and making Manila the center of commercial web from other Pacific islands, they failed to make improvement in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors of the country. Had they been more attentive to this part of the economy, they would have been in better condition to weather the economic bumps that were about to descend upon them when the trade finally ended in 1815.

In less than a century after the last galleon's return to Manila, the Orient was exploited in turn by France, the British Empire and by an eager and expanding United States of America. Now the western rim of the greatest ocean is spangled with independent Asian states humming with economic activity: the Philippines,  Malaysia, Indonesia. Enormous economic power resides in Japan,  South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan,  and Singapore. They are  all manufacturers and exporters of  commodities that the world wants and needs.

In 2018, the UNESCO finally gave its approval to the 2015 application  that the Philippines and Mexico with backing from Spain submitted for the nomination of the  Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade Route to the UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE List. Spain has also suggested the tri-national nomination of the Archives on the Manila-Acapulco Galleons be in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

Spain has long been gone from this Pacific Rim "neighborhood" but she  left an indelible mark in forming the modern Pacific world. Through her galleons Spain turned the dream of Marco Polo, Columbus and Magellan into a reality:  to reach, to tap, and to exploit the riches of Asia. According to a French historian, Manila became the "base for the first world economy directed from Europe... throughout the greatest of the oceans."

 

Noralyn Onto Dudt, a resident of North Bethesda, Maryland  has vivid memories of her travels to Spain where the impressive collection of documents at the Archivo General de  Indias in Sevilla piqued her curiosity. The Archivo de Indias in the southern province of Andalucia is a massive repository of all documents relating to Spain's overseas acquisitions and possessions between the 15th and 19th centuries.