1. The Galleon Trade
1565 - 1815

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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. – Manila
How Africa was connected to the Spanish Empire:
African trading ports – Portuguese Brazil; Portuguese Brazil – Trading ports in Spanish America

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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.

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

12. 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