Manila Galleon Trade
Also called: Manila–Acapulco galleons, Founding of Manila
Spain found a return route across the Pacific from the Philippines to Mexico and founded Manila. For 250 years galleons crossed the Pacific, exchanging American silver for Chinese silk and porcelain.
Boxer Codex (1590) - Unknown Spanish Author/Compiler with Likely Chinese Artist from Spanish Colonial Manila, Philippines, circa 1590 AD. · Public domain · Source
In 1565 Legazpi settled at Cebu in the Philippines, and the friar Urdaneta, sailing with him, found the return route to Mexico on the westerlies and currents of the north Pacific. Manila was founded in 1571, and from the next year galleons sailed annually between Acapulco and Manila. American silver was traded in Manila for silk and porcelain brought by Fujianese merchants, and this silver drove much of the Ming economy. For the first time Asia, the Americas and Europe were joined in a single maritime trading network. The trade lasted until 1815.