Description
Book SynopsisStudies of the trade between the Atlantic World and Asia during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries typically focus on the exchanges between Atlantic European countries – especially Portugal, the Netherlands and England – and Asia across the Cape route. In The Atlantic World and the Manila Galleons. Circulation, Market, and Consumption of Asian Goods in the Spanish Empire, 1565-1650, José L. Gasch-Tomás offers a new approach to understanding the connections between the Atlantic World and Asia. By drawing attention to the trans-Pacific trade between the Americas and the Philippines, the re-exportation of Asian goods from New Spain to Castile, and the consumption of Chinese silk, Chinese porcelain and Japanese furnishings in New Spain and Seville, this book discloses how New Spanish cities and elites were main components of the spread of taste for Asian goods in the Spanish Empire. This book reveals how New Spanish family and commercial networks channelled the market formation of Asian goods in the Atlantic World around 1600.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Early modern Hispanic measures and currencies Abbreviations of archives Illustrations Map 1. Introduction 1.1. Historical issues and debates: Globalisation, trade, and consumption history 1.2. Approach, sources, and methodology 1.3. Mexico City, Seville, and Manila in 1600: Population and institutions 2. From Asian goods to Asian commodities in the Spanish Empire 2.1. Agents and forms of transfer of Asian goods 2.2. The role of women in the transmission of Asian goods 2.3. The retail trade of Asian goods in New Spain 2.4. Conclusions 3. Commerce in the Pacific and the Atlantic and interaction between the two oceans br/> 3.1. Transformations in the Philippine economy 3.2. The trade of Asian goods in the Spanish Empire at its apogee (1580–1630) 3.3. Silk for silver in the Manila Galleon trade 3.4. The decline of Asian trade in the Spanish Empire (1630-1650) 3.5. Conclusions 4. Trans-Pacific trade and the political economy of the Spanish Empire br/> 4.1. Mexico’s guild of merchants and the trade of the Manila galleons 4.2. Mexican merchant strategies of investing in the Manila galleons 4.3. The struggle for silver and the regulation of trans-Pacific trade 4.4. Conclusions 5. Impact of the Manila Galleon trade on Hispanic production of manufactured goods br/> 5.1. The impact of Chinese silk on Castilian and New Spanish industries 5.2. Knowledge transfer and ‘import substitution’ industries in New Spain 5.3. Conclusions 6. Consumption habits, fashions, and taste for Asian goods among elites in Mexico City and Seville br/> 6.1. Identification of the elites of Seville and the Creole and Iberian elites of Mexico City 6.2. Social aspects of the consumption of Asian manufactured goods in Mexico City and Seville 6.3. Asian material culture in the Spanish Empire 6.4. Conclusions 7. The Manila Galleons – An American bridge from Asia to Europe br/> Appendix A. Survey of primary sources Appendix B. Conversion from current to constant values Appendix C. Glossary of fabrics, garments, and textiles Sources and bibliography Index
