Manila Galleon: Trans-Pacific Trade Route (1565-1815)

The Manila Galleon, also known as the Nao de China, is the term most commonly employed to refer to the maritime trade route that connected Manila in the Philippines to Acapulco in the American territories of New Spain between 1565 and 1815. For two and a half centuries it was the only regular trans-Pacific link between East Asia and the Americas. An average of two ships sailed annually carrying Spanish American silver from Acapulco, which was then used to purchase Asian manufactured goods, such as Chinese silk textiles and porcelain, Japanese lacquerware, and Philippine ivory carvings, as well as spices, which were then transported back to Acapulco to be sold at great profit. This route turned the Philippines into a viable colonial holding for the Spanish Crown. As alternative, more efficient routes between Europe and Asia developed throughout the eighteenth century and the struggle for independence intensified in Mexico from 1810; the route was abolished in 1815. As one of the main vectors of early modern trans-Pacific commercial, demographic, and cultural exchanges between Asia and the Americas, the consolidation of the Manila Galleon is considered to be an important milestone in the configuration of the early modern global economy.

Since Columbus’s 1492 westward expedition, the Iberian monarchies sought to establish a direct link between their domains and East Asia. After the treaties of Tordesillas (1494) and Zaragoza (1529) divided the globe into Portuguese and Spanish spheres of influence, the latter were barred from the Portuguese-controlled route around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean. In order to enter and profit from the very lucrative spice trade, the Spanish Crown needed to find an alternative trans-Pacific route. It commissioned expeditions led by Ferdinand Magellan (1519) and Juan Garcia Jofre de Loaysa (1525) in search of a viable route from the Iberian Peninsula to the Spice Islands in Southeast Asia. After both efforts failed, claiming the lives of most of their crews and their commanders, a series of new attempts was initiated from the newly acquired vice-royalty of New Spain created after the fall of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1519. Expeditions in 1527 and 1542, although successful in reaching the Moluccas and Philippines, failed to find the tornaviaje, the return journey from Asia to Mexico.

In 1565, another expedition led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi crossed the Pacific and successfully established a permanent Spanish foothold in the Philippines. Legazpi ordered experienced sailor Augustinian friar and veteran of the 1527 expedition, Andres de Urdaneta, to find the return route to New Spain. Urdaneta finally succeeded by sailing north by northeast until reaching the Kuroshio Current off the coast of Japan and following it across the Pacific to California and then veering southeast along the coast until reaching the port of Acapulco. After the Spanish conquest of Manila in 1571, Urdaneta's itinerary became the standard route for the vessels that annually voyaged from the Philippines to mainland New Spain for the next 250 years. The galleons transported large quantities of Mexican silver to the Philippines, which was used to pay for the expenses of Spanish officials and missionaries in the colony, as well as to purchase Asian products, which were in turn transported for sale back in Acapulco.

The success and profitability of the Manila Galleon can be attributed to three main factors: first, Manila's strategic location; second, the high purchasing power of Spanish American silver in Asia; and, third, the almost simultaneous relaxation of Chinese restrictions on maritime commerce. Manila had easy access to raw and manufactured silks, porcelain, and lacquerware from China and Japan; ivory from South and Southeast Asia; and spices from the Moluccas. Merchants were able to cheaply purchase these luxury items with Spanish American silver supplied by the galleons, thanks in part to taxation policies in China known as the Single Whip reforms, which required people to meet their obligations in silver. This precious metal had a much greater purchasing power in Asia than in other parts of the world. Chinese goods were able to reach Manila as in 1567 the Longqing emperor (1567-73) allowed for the free departure of Chinese junks from Fujian to foreign markets, with the exception of Japanese ports.

The galleons set sail from Acapulco to Manila between November and March, with the voyage lasting anywhere from three to four months. This itinerary was usually easy and uneventful, especially when compared with the return voyage. From Manila to Acapulco, the ships left between May and September and could remain at sea for as long as six months. The change in latitude exposed the crew and passengers to hypothermia, and the great distance covered put a strain on supply, with many succumbing to scurvy.

The Manila Galleon played an important role in demographic exchanges across the Pacific. Missionaries, crown officials, and militiamen traveled from the vice-royalty to the Philippines, and a substantial number of Asian merchants, slaves, artisans, and sailors traveled on the galleons in the opposite direction and settled in mainland New Spain.

FURTHER READING: Brook, Timothy. 1999. The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China.

Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.

Giraldez, Arturo. 2015. The Age of Trade: The Manila Galleons and the Dawn of the Global Economy. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Olle, Manel. 2002. La empresa de China: De la Armada lnvencible al Galeon de Manila. Barcelona: Acantilado.

Schurz, William Lytle. 1985. The Manila Galleon. New York: E.P Dutton.

Seijas, Tatiana. 2014. Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico: from Chinos to Indians. New York: Cambridge University Press.