Page 44 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

10 C. Wu

Fig. 1.3 Antonio de Herrera’s map of 1601 showing the power sphere of Spanish in the Paci!c.
Cited from Tooley et al. (1968, p. 116)

The chapter of Biography of Luzon of Mingshi (History of Ming Dynasty, !!
&") recorded:
After Franc ("!", Spanish) had arrived to Luzon, they killed the king of the aboriginals
and conquered the people. Luzon was indeed the Franc.” “The Hokkien merchants knew
well of Luzon’s fertileness of the land. For Luzon was not so far away from Fujian, there
were more than tens of thousands of Hokkiens moving to trade and staying there for a long
time. (Zhang 1974, p. 8370)
The Chapter of Biography of Island Barbarians (Luzon) of Minshu (History of
Min Kingdom, Vol. 146, !!$") recorded the same facts:
The Hokkien merchants reaped pro!t greatly at the early period of their maritime trade to
Luzon. Though the pro!t reduced for the competition after more merchants reached, they
still rushed to go. (He 1994, pp. 4359)
It was the Yuegang-Manila navigation and other sea routes connecting Manila
with Macao, Siam, Borneo and Nagasaki to Manila that traded the ceramics, silk
products, tea and other products from mainland of eastern Asia to Manila, and then
transited to America and Europe by galleons since the mid 16th century (Fig. 1.4).
The European and American products were also transported to Manila and Yuegang
in return. So the Yuegang-Manila navigation had transited to Manila galleon before
the Spanish merchants got legal permission to trade in China, connecting local
maritime culture of eastern Asia with global navigation system as a part of new
maritime silk road.