The Manila Galleon,Macao and international maritime and commercial relations,1500–1700

Abstract

Formal and informal trade were key elements in the establishment of global connections. Using data collected from Portuguese and Spanish archives, as well as the secondary literature, this article examines the early modern Southeast Asian Iberian communities of Macao and Manila, their weakness and resilience. Far from the centres of political decision-making they relied on their own resources and abilities to manage maritime connections with China, Japan and Spanish America through the voyages of the ‘Macao Ship’ and the ‘Manila Galleon’. The rarely mentioned intervention of the Macanese traders in the Manila Galleon route constitutes a central part of this research.