Manila Galleon’s glory days (1)

MANY Filipinos might not be aware of it but this year 2015 would be the 450th anniversary of the Galleon Trade. This was the triumvirate of the Philippines, Mexico, and Spain, the first-world economy of modern times, spreading the economic, cultural, and the flora and fauna unique to those far-flung places.

The Manila galleons sailed the Pacific for 250 years from 1565 to 1815. It brought to Europe via Acapulco its cargoes of luxury goods, especially silk, porcelain, and tea that were shipped from China.

From the Philippines came resin, spices, bird feathers, mango, which probably originated from India, and Filipino sailors.

Manufactured goods from Spain were shipped to us which probably led to the adoption of many Spanish terms in Tagalog — asukal, araro, martilyo and kutsilyo, to name a few.

The total route of the Galleon trade covered 15,000 miles, from Spain to the Philippines, linking Seville with Veracruz in its Atlantic phase, then Mexico City and Acapulco overland, and eventually Manila across the Pacific.

“It was the first global trade route in history,” says Javier Ruescas and Javier Wrana in their essay: “The West Indies & Manila Galleons: the First Global Trade Route.”

On the return trip, the galleons would bring the exotic plants of South America such as the tomato, chili pepper, maize (corn), beans and peanuts, yucca and agave (the source of tequila), cassava, potato, arrowroot, and avocado.

There were cranberries, blueberries, papaya, pineapple, squash, cacao, the source of chocolate; tobacco, chicle, rubber, maple syrup, birch syrup, and vanilla. Also fruits or vegetables with “cha” or “che,” or “te.” Chayote, atsuete, camachile, and others too numerous to mention.

Meat and poultry includes turkey, bison, venison, muscovy ducks, and guinea pigs.

From a broad economic point of view, the Philippines through the era of the galleon trade became part of what has been called the first-world economy of modern times, that based on Seville and the Atlantic, says Ruescas and Wrana.

The Manila Galleons were also known in New Spain as “La Nao de la China” (The China Ship) because it carried largely Chinese goods, shipped from Manila.

(To be continued)