Kas 110 Report – The Galleon Trade

I. Thesis Statement - The Galleon Trade is an important part of World and Philippine history
because of its socio-economic and cultural implications to its stakeholders: the Filipinos, the
Spanish, and the Chinese
II. Why Galleon?
A. No gold – mining for gold was more backbreaking and less profitable, Spanish didn’t gain
control of the Benguet Mines
B. Geographic Location of the Philippines
 silk from the North (China) and spices from the South (Moluccas) gathered in Manila to
be forwarded to America and Europe
 Japan, China, kingdoms of Farther India, and the long chain of islands that reach
southeast from the Malay peninsula to the much-desired Moluccas formed a semi-
circle, whose radii met at Manila
III. Route of the Galleon
A. Urdaneta – An Augustinian Priest and Navigator that discovered the route from Manila to
Acapulco that would be used in the Galleon Trade
B. Manila – passes by south of Luzon and the Embocadero (between Bicol and Samar) to the
Pacific Ocean, leaves at the end of June
C. Japan – ships climbed to Japan where unfailing trade winds blew them to the western
American coast, traded with them but only for a short period (until 1630s) because of
tension from cultural and religious differences
D. Acapulco – arrives here at the end Nov or early Dec, and leaves at the end of March
E. Manila – arrives here at May or June
F. Significance - Connection of the Western Hemisphere to the Eastern Hemisphere through
the Pacific Ocean, Spanish Lake
IV. The Galleon Ship
A. Structure
 High forecastle and poop resulting to a half-moon appearance
 Rudder under the poop castle and bowsprit on the edge of the forecastle
 Philippine hardwood was used to build the galleons - molave, lanang, abaca
B. Construction
 worst form of polo for the natives
 cut lumber, serve as crew and oarsmen
C. Decree of King Phillip II in 1593 – limits the number of Galleons that can cross to two per
year and the tonnage of each ship to 300, Tonnage never enforced with up Galleons having
tonnage of up to more than 2000
V. Stages of the Galleon Trade
A. Imports from China and other Asian countries
 Junks came from China with silk, gold embroideries, perfumes, ornaments, tea, fruits,
animals etc.
 30 or 40 junks came from China yearly
 Trading vessels from Japan, Cambodia, Siam, Borneo, Malacca, and India came to Manila
too
  Pancada – goods were sold wholesale and not to individual buyers to avoid fraud or
overpricing, this proved to be ineffective and by 1703, a royal order approved the
substitution of the fair for the pancada
 Without pancada, competition among buyers would inflate prices
B. Departure from Manila to Acapulco
 Boleta – a trader’s license to be obtained from the junta de repartamiento (allotment
board) that was tasked to distribute lading space aboard the galleon, board was
composed of the gobernador-heneral, fiscal of the royal audiencia, and the archbishop
of Manila, boleta was signified ownership of the packages
 Boletas were allotted first to widows and orphans, but they illegaly sold them to the
richer merchants, that
 Junta de Avaluo (board of appraisals) – made sure that the shipments didn’t exceed the
legal permiso and that goods were fairly-priced
 Lading space depended on the size of the galleon
 Divided into balas of uniform size, which were subdivided to piezas measuring 1 ½
meters by ½ meters
 Who can trade? – only citizens and doesn’t include indios, this led to a more restrictive
monopoly
 Creation of the consulado de Manila, which was before with the city council that formed
one administrative unit called ciudad y comercio de Manila, the consulado was
responsible for the commercial interests of the city
 Accounting – made by treasury officials in Manila in the presence of the gobernador-
heneral, auditor of the audiencia and an official from the tribunal de cuentas (bureau of
accounts)
C. Arrival to Acapulco from Manila
 Situado – tax that the Spanish Gov’t in the Philippines would get from the Galleon Trade,
was in the form of silver
 Two officials assigned to compute Situado – contador (accountant) and a contador de
resultas (assistant accountant), they kept two sets of accounts – receivables/credit and
payables/debit
 The accounts from Manila and Mexico are verified for accuracy before they were sent to
the Royal Council of Indies in Spain
 In charge in Acapulco were the castellan (gov) and two treasury officials, they boarded
the galleon to check and verify the manifestos presented to them
 A fair took place during which people came to Acapulco to buy the merchandise, but
others escaped and sold outside, prices set were not followed and in actual sales prices
depended on supply and demand
 The Galleons brought to the Philippines chocolate, wine, clothing, iron, Church
vestments and equipment, and most importantly silver
 Silver was minted to coins and was used as situado
D. Arrival to Manila from Acapulco
 Kinds of traders: true merchants who didn’t need boletas, the pseudo-merchants who
made false pledges, the gov’t workers who already had salaries and didn’t need to
trade, but the most regular traders were the priests
  Priests represented their orders, 1751 – a royal law granted them 132 boletas
 More regular than the priests were the Obras Pias (charitable trust funds) – they loaned
out money or engaged in trade, merchants loan from them and gain from it, the loans
have interest rates from 20-30percent so the trust funds earn a lot, the money was used
for dowry to poor girls, education of orphans, etc
VI. Economic effects of the Galleon Trade
A. To the Government
 Importance of Situado - The financial accounts that were sent to Spain included the
tributes, the Chinese taxes, fines, customs, taxes on cargo assessed in Mexico etc. An
important item was the list of past and future expenditures, and the deficit of the
Manila colonial treasury was offset by the Situado
 Manila’s dependence to the situado – fixed at 150000 pesos but each to 1.5m pesos,
during Gov Diego de Salcedo’s term one galleon didn’t reach Manila in time due to
storms and delays leading to an economic crisis in Manila
B. To the People
 Monopoly of Galleon Trade - resulted to increasing wealth of the ruling class and the
increasing gap between them and the normal Filipino, 5 Spaniards with assets worth
100000 pesos and less than 100 persons whose assets totalled 4000 pesos
 Native-born Filipinos – participated as workers that wove the thick cotton sails,
gathered wax from the forest, and served as crew among others. They did not share in
the traders or capitalist’s profit
 Tianggi – a place for bartering basic commodities, diff from Galleon fairs, the interaction
of the highlanders to the coastal people, exchange of rice and textile and tobacco etc,
goods transported in bangkas or loaded in baskets tied to both ends of a pole
shouldered by the trade or atop a woman’s head on a bilao
 Two most obvious levels of Philippine society – the rich who engaged in the Galleon
trade, and the poor who had their tianggi
VII. Social and Cultural effects of the Galleon Trade
A. To the Spanish
 Galleon trade didn’t entice them to come to the Philippines because it wasn’t profitable
due to Monopoly of the Trade
 The few Spaniards remained in Manila and only the religious were in the provinces, for
lack of officials these missionaries acted as agents of the Church and State
simultaneously
 Never more than 2000 priests in the Philippines
B. To the Chinese
 Attracted them to the Philippines and they soon outnumbered the Spaniards
 Hostility caused by the outnumbering and the racial pride and limpieza de sangre(purity
of blood) mindset of the Spanish
 Led to several Chinese massacres and their geographic isolation in the Parian area
 Chinese significance – important for the manufacturing of goods and thus vital to the
galleon trade, good businessmen and used different techniques like underselling the
competition
 When the Chinese population dwindled, the economy suffered
C. Multiculturalism
 Society included three groups: Spanish, Filipinos, and Chinese
 Food – pancit, paella