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13 Archaeological Distribution of Chinese Porcelain in Mexico 219

and in New Spain the port of San Blas formally became part of the Manila Galleon
trade route (Castellanos Escudier 2007: 99, 100–101).
Bourbon reforms granted Spanish ports the rights to trade with other world
Spanish ports, not just those in Spain (Lockhart and Schwartz 1983: 363, 362–368).
Without an effective militia or any way to truly control trade any longer, the system
broke down in the sense that trade began to take place among many of the New
World colonies, British and American as well as French as they began to produce
an abundance of resources. From the beginning of the seventeenth century Spanish
intercolonial trade was restricted to avoid competition with Spanish commercial
endeavors and to protect Iberian production of goods (Martínez López-Cano 2006:
109; Russell 2010: 88). Though trade was considered contraband if not carried on
Spanish ships, Spanish control was effectively lost.
In 1810 New Spain began a full war for independence, and by 1821 Mexico had
reached full independence from Spain. With the availability of European ceramics,
and once the new nation had broken the imperial yokes, the Manila Galleon lost
economic and commercial relevance in the new nation. In Mexico, the upper class
was embracing new notions of progress and style and applying them to material
life, and French porcelains became substitutes for Chinese vessels as luxury
commodities.

13.2 Chinese Porcelain in Mexico as a Research Topic

The distribution of Chinese porcelain objects in New Spain may be viewed from an
archaeological perspective as a flood that covered most of this viceroyalty that
became part of the Spanish seaborne empire in 1521. Archaeological excavations
often reveal evidence of an intensive trade in Asian goods, most of all !ne porcelain
vessels. This commerce was possible after rich silver mines were exploited and
silver was coined in “pesos”; silver became the commodity that made possible an
intensive trade with China.
By the 1550s, with the discovery of rich silver ores in northern New Spain,
especially those in Zacatecas, the Camino Real was slowly established and more
territories reaching north to Santa Fe in the province of New Mexico, were dis-
covered and colonized. The road was also called “El Camino de la Plata” (the Silver
Road) because it connected mining towns with Mexico City. It passed through
Querétaro, San Luis de la Paz, San Felipe (today San Felipe Torres Mochas), and
Zacatecas; later the route went to New Mexico passing through Aguascalientes,
Zacatecas, Fresnillo, Sombrerete, Nombre de Dios, Durango, Parral, and El Paso
del Norte (e.g. Fournier 1999). From Acapulco, Asian porcelains were distributed
all over New Spain using mule trains that passed though Puebla and eventually to
the most important port located in the Gulf of Mexico, Veracruz, where Asian and
local goods were shipped to Spain and placed into the Empire’s markets.