El Galeón de Manila: mercancías, personas e ideas viajando a través del Pacífico (1565-1815)

Abstract

The Manila Galleon, or Nao de China, was the most important transpacific route between the 16th and the 19th centuries. The city of Manila became the place where commodities from China and other Asian countries were exchanged for American silver. These goods were loaded and sent to Acapulco, from where they were distributed to the rest of Hispanic America and Europe. This paper provides a panoramic vision of the history of this transpacific route. In addition to serving as a state of the art of the current research about this topic, a comprehensive approach is carried out by including not only the traffic of goods, which most authors have focused on, but also the movements of people and ideas, as well as the regulations for trade and distribution among the main actors of the profits extracted from this transpacific journey. The exchange of texts and ideas between both sides of the Pacific Ocean is emphasized in this paper.