East Asia’s Other New World,China and the Viceroyalty of Peru: A Neglected Aspect of Early Modern Maritime History

Abstract

At least officially, the Chinese government showed little to no interest in the Asia-Pacific region. We also know very little about Chinese state interference except for attempts to fight against piracy in the Southeast Asian waters. This article will consequently address and survey a neglected aspect of China’s maritime history, namely China’s (indirect) relationship with the Viceroyalty of Peru, its capital Lima (= Ciudad de los Reyes), and its port of Callao, and with the ‘silver centre’ in the Spanish Indies—the Villa Imperial (= Potosí), in the hinterlands of the Viceroyalty of Peru. These active, but at first sight less obvious and frequently neglected parts of the trans-Pacific trade, I would like to call ‘the other New World’.

The article introduces a variety of micro-historical bottom-up insights into connections between two places that at first sight seem related to each other only through the shipments of huge quantities of silver from the Cerro Rico in Potosí via Acapulco and Manila to China, in exchange for Chinese silks and porcelains, looking specifically at some micro networks, contraband, informal, accidental, and undesired exchanges. It offers preliminary results and a general framework and survey of trade connections, routes and information on the variety of Chinese products that reached Peru.