Page 43 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

1 Bound for America: A Historical and Archaeological … 9

set up the early Pan-Paci!c navigation between Manila and Acapulco at new Spain,
connecting Europe with eastern Asia via central America. Though the imperial court
of Ming Dynasty carried out maritime ban since the mid 14th century, the Spanish
galleon trade always relied greatly on the exported cargoes from mainland eastern
Asia. The Spanish merchants applied repeatedly to emperor of Ming Dynasty for
permission of trade at Chincheo (Zhangzhou) and Macao, but failed time and again.
Anyway, the imperial court of Ming Dynasty opened the maritime trade of Yuegang
by taxation in !rst year of Longqing (!$) period (1567), the new situation of
“Opening Sea” encouraging Hokkien maritime merchants at Yuegang to sail out-
bound to trade with Spanish in Manila and other seaports in Luzon. The trade
between Yuegang junks and Manila galleons extended eastern Asian navigation and
connected with the early globalization of European (Figs. 1.2 and 1.3).
The flourishing of sea routes between Yuegang and Luzon recorded in the
Dongxiyang Kao, Shunfeng Xiangsong, Zhinan Zhengfa had been actually the
result of the maritime economic interaction between Chinese Junks and Manila
galleons. Chinese historical documents recorded the facts of Spanish expedition in
Philippines and Yuegang merchant’s trade in Luzon.

Fig. 1.2 Map of 1575–1580 from Spanish manuscript showing geographic situation of East and
Southeast Asia. Made by Spanish cartographer Lopez de Velasco, who had been the of!cial
historian of Castile and the Indies to Philip II. The Chart was printed in a book by Antonio de
Herreray Tordesillas in Madrid in 1601 (cited from Suarez 1999, p. 163)