During the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, the transpacific treasure galleons sailed annually from Manila to Acapulco. In Manila, the vessel was loaded with the scented spices of the East, luxurious silks from China, exquisite hand crafted lacquerware from Japan and a multitude of Oriental goods that the Spaniards of New Spain longed to own. The returning galleon from Acapulco to Manila, carried as much as 2.5 million silver pesos in payment of the goods sent to the New Spain in the previous year, as well as a yearly silver subsidy of 250,000 reales for the maintenance of the colonial government in the Philippines. But while the galleons mainly sailed alone and unaccompanied from Manila to Acapulco and vice versa, they were vulnerable to a host of calamities and misfortunes. A fire on board the vessel or a terrifying storm could end the voyage and the lives of every one on the ship even before the galleon was able to reach land. Additionally, the commanders of the galleons were always threatened by lurking pirates and privateers who preyed on the vessels and coveted the treasures they carried. The book describes in detail how the galleons were attacked at sea and how they fought against enemy vessels, as well as how many of the ships sank or were shipwrecked over the years. It also covers their management, construction, manning, weaponry, navigation, daily life on the ship, provisions, cargoes and voyages. The book contains an annotated list of the galleons sailing between the Philippines and Mexico from 1565 to 1815. This informative book is the first of its kind to cover such an expansive history of the Pacific galleons which up to this point had remained largely untold.

The Manila-Acapulco Galleons : the Treasure Ships of the Pacific

In The Atlantic World and the Manila Galleons, José L. Gasch-Tomás offers an account of the trade of Asian goods between colonial Spanish America and East Asia, and the distribution and consumption of those goods in the Spanish Empire, during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The Atlantic World and the Manila Galleons

Peter de Vries, rugged and resourceful, is a rogue CIA agent, on the run from the Agency that is trying to kill him. While he is hiding out in a remote tropical island in the Philippines he gets involved in the salvage of a seventeenth century Spanish treasure ship. He meets a beautiful, elegant and refined English woman, an archeologist working at the wreck site. She is intrigued by the mystery surrounding de Vries and puzzled by his unexplained, detailed, knowledge concerning the Spanish galleon and events in the seventeenth century. Peter de Vries is posing as a scuba diver, but explodes into violent physical action on several occasions; in order to protect her, making her suspect there is much more to this other wise quiet man. How and why is he so skilled in deadly combat? How is it he knows so much about the history of the Spanish galleon lying on the bottom of the lagoon? A strong. Independent, feminist she is nevertheless powerfully drawn emotionally and sexually toward this enigmatic man, much against her better judgment and instincts! The Manila Galleon will grip your from the outset, and will not leg go until the final denouement! REVIEW EXPATICA MAGAZINE, EUROPE Expats have an advantage when writing fiction; doing unusual things in exotic places is often part of the experience of living and working outside your native country. Dutch resident Bernard W. Rees takes us to the Philippines in The Manila Galleon and to China, along the Silk Road and over the Himalayas into Pakistan in The Last Patriot. Born in Llanelli in Wales, Rees has seen his fair share of the world. He grew up in Kampala, Uganda and Nairobi in Kenya. At sixteen he went to sea and got his first taste of the Orient. He emigrated to Canada in his early 20s where he traded ships and cargo for many years, from "the Americas to the Persian Gulf, China, Japan and Korea". Following the death of his first wife in 1995, Rees decided he needed "to change my life and do something new". He sold his shipping business and moved to Manila, where, in his spare time, he searched for Spanish treasure ships. This is when he developed another talent: he pens a good yarn. The main character of The Manila Galleon is Peter de Vries, a rogue CIA agent. Of course rogue CIA agents are common in thrillers these days, and one who has lost his memory isn't that original either. But what really matters is that Rees makes something of this character in this page-turning thriller, with a twist. De Vries gets involved in the salvage of a 17th century Spanish treasure ship, while at the same time he must avoid the CIA and discover the significance of his dreams about the Galleon and its fatal encounter with Dutch privateers. The sole survivor was a Dutch prisoner, Captain Jeroen de Vries. Rees wrote his second novel while living in the US from 2003 to 2005. The CIA is there again but this time the main setting is China. This book is heavier than Galleons as it deals with the "major problems facing the world today": energy security, terrorism and the looming potential of conflict between the US and China. The hero, if that is the correct term, is Owen O' Brien, a cynical, alcoholic journalist and the heroine is an idealistic young doctor working with orphaned AIDS children in China. Written as a memoir to his daughter, the book recounts how O'Brien comes into possession of secret documents outlining a plan to attack the US. The CIA, which will never hire Rees to do its PR, is again the bad guy as it joins forces with the Chinese to stop O'Brien fleeing with the papers. If this was Hollywood, the hero would save the day at the last minute. But Rees, a world-wise expat, doesn't go for sugar-coated endings. Not to give too many secrets away, R

The Manila Galleon

This is the first book devoted to the topic of Manila galleon shipwrecks in North America; previous research on Manila galleons either has focused on the economics of the Manila galleon trade or has been limited to reports of the galleon wreck sites in the western Pacific salvaged for their cargoes. All three North American shipwrecks are protected under the historic preservation laws of the United States or Mexico, and each shipwreck site has been investigated by professional archaeologists seeking to answer research questions posed in peer-reviewed research designs. The majority of Manila galleon wrecks are found in the western Pacific and were salvaged by treasure hunters rather than recovered by archaeologists. The three North American shipwrecks represent the most protected Manila galleon archaeological sites, so their potential for future archaeological research is higher than for many of the extant shipwrecks of the western Pacific.

The Archaeology of Manila Galleons in the American Continent

This book focuses on the archaeological and historical research on the seaport heritage of galleon navigation in Asia-Pacific region. It reconstructs the Manila Galleons’ era of early maritime globalization, established and operated by Spanish navigators from the 16th to 19th centuries. The galleons sailed across the Pacific via the hub seaports and trade centers of Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco in Mexico, forming a prosperous sea route connecting eastern Asia and New Spain on the American continent for more than 250 years. This pioneering navigation of the pan-Pacific regions promoted early global maritime trade along the new Maritime Silk Road between the East and the West. Written by archaeologists and cultural historians from America, Mexico, Japan, the Philippines, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it presents the latest investigations and research on the galleon-affiliated seaports, including Acapulco and San Blas in Mexico, Guam, Manila in Philippines, Yuegang (Crescent Harbor), Xiamen (Amoy), Keelung and Macao in China, Nagasaki in Japan. This joint research sheds new light on the history of navigation and maritime trade between galleon-affiliated harbors; the origin, production, transport and trade of the galleon cargo; social cultural exchange along the new Maritime Silk Road in the pan-Pacific region; and the history of maritime globalization in last 500 years. It offers a new perspective on maritime archaeology and traces the different stages of the galleon trade and affiliated maritime history, including "Yuegang Outbound", "Manila Entrepotting" and "Bound for Acapulco", presenting a panoramagram of Spanish pan-Pacific trade and early maritime globalization.

Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaports and Early Maritime Globalization

This groundbreaking book presents the first full history of the Manila galleons, which marked the true beginning of a global economy. Arturo Giraldez, the world’s leading scholar of the galleons, traces the rise of the maritime route, which began with the founding of the city of Manila in 1571 and ended in 1815 when the last galleon left the port of Acapulco in New Spain (Mexico) for the Philippines, establishing a permanent connection between the Spanish empire in America with Asian countries, most importantly China, the main supplier of commodities during that era. Throughout the two-and-a-half-century history of the Manila galleons, the strategic commodity fuelling global networks was always silver. Giraldez shows how this most important of precious metals shaped world history, with influences that stretch to the present.

The Age of Trade

The story of the expeditions of Spanish explorers told through the history of the first American currency: pieces of eight.

The Spanish Treasure Fleets

Beneath the clear waters of the Philippines lie vast treasures from at least 15 Manila Galleons yet to be discovered. During World War II, Yamashita treasure was meant to be deliberately sunk in Japanese ships, with the intention of recovery after the War. Read this book to find out more. This book is issued with a word of warning. There are grave an unexpected dangers associated with treasure hunting in the Philippines. This is an easy to read history book, well researched and full of information that you will not find in any other book.

Treasure Ships of the Philippines

Long before London and New York rose to international prominence, a trading route was discovered between Spanish America and China that ushered in a new era of globalisation. The Ruta de la Plata or ’Silver Way’ catalysed economic and cultural exchange, built the foundations for the first global currency and led to the rise of the first ‘world city’. And yet, for all its importance, the Silver Way is too often neglected in conventional narratives on the birth of globalisation. Gordon and Morales re-establish its fascinating role in economic and cultural history, with direct consequences for how we understand China today.

The Silver Way: China, Spanish America and the birth of globalisation 1565-1815: Penguin Specials

This collective volume explores the ways merchants managed to connect different spaces all over the globe in the early modern period by organizing the movement of goods, capital, information and cultural objects between different commercial maritime systems in the Mediterranean and Atlantic basin. Merchants and Trade Networks in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 1550-1800 consists of four thematic blocs: theoretical considerations, the social composition of networks, connected spaces, networks between formal and informal exchange, as well as possible failures of ties. This edited volume features eleven contributions who deal with theoretical concepts such as social network analysis, globalization, social capital and trust. In addition, several chapters analyze the coexistence of mono-cultural and transnational networks, deal with network failure and shifting network geographies, and assess the impact of kinship for building up international networks between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. This work evaluates the use of specific network types for building up connections across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Basin stretching out to Central Europe, the Northern Sea and the Pacific. This book is of interest to those who study history of economics and maritime economics, as well as historians and scholars from other disciplines working on maritime shipping, port studies, migration, foreign mercantile communities, trade policies and mercantilism.

Merchants and Trade Networks in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 1550-1800

Villamar examines the role of Portuguese merchants in the formation of the Manila Galleon as a system of trade founded at the end of the sixteenth century. The rise of Manila as a crucial transshipment port was not a spontaneous incident. Instead, it came about through a complex combination of circumstances and interconnections that nurtured the establishment of the Manila Galleon system, a trading mechanism that lasted two and half centuries from 1565 until 1815. Villamar analyses the establishment of the regulatory framework of the trade across the Pacific Ocean as a whole setting that provided legality to the transactions, predictability to the transportation and security to the stakeholders. He looks both at the Spanish crown strategy in Asia, and the emergence of a network of Portuguese merchants located in Manila and active in the long-distance trade. This informal community of merchants participated from the inception of the trading system across the Pacific, with connections between Europe, ports in Asia under the control of Portugal, the Spanish colonies in America, and the city of Manila. From its inception, the newly-founded capital of the Philippines became a hub of connections, attracting part of the trade that already existed in Asia. Surveying the Portuguese commercial networks from the 'Estado da Índia' across the 'Spanish lake, ' this book sheds light on the early modern globalization from a truly comprehensive Iberian perspective. This is a valuable resource for scholars of Pacific and Iberian trade history and the maritime history of Asia.

Portuguese Merchants in the Manila Galleon System

The Manila galleon was the annual treasure ship sailing between Acapulco and Manila for 250 years. THE MANILA GALLEON is dovetailing adventures: one set in 1704, the other today. Protagonists in each-one a privateer from the frontier town of New York, the other an adventurer from modern Manhattan-try to claim the prize. Each tries to understand the purpose of a mysterious statue aboard. In the past, it is possessed by a Jesuit with earth-shaking ambitions. The stakes are equally high on the modern side-a fortune in treasure. If al-Queda linked Asian terrorists seize it, the Religious World War will explode to unimaginable levels. Past and present coverge in a multi-layered climax, restoring a legend to his rightful place in history. "A MAJOR WRITER OF THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN SCENE"-Bangkok POST. "JASON SCHOONOVER IS AMONG A SMALL HANDFUL OF AUTHORS WHO INSPIRED ME TO BECOME A WRITER"-Jack DuBrul, bestselling author of PANDORA'S CURSE and DEEP FIRE RISING. Website: jasonschoonover.com

Commodore George Anson, "Father of the Modern Royal Navy," sets out on his epic voyage to capture for England a fabulous Spanish treasure ship - the Manila galleon, "Prize of all the Oceans."

Manila Galleon

The bibliography is a useful guide for researchers on the Manila Galleon and, more generally, pn the Spanish colonial period in the 16th to 19th centuries.

Sources on the Manila galleon from the Archivo General de la Nación of Mexico

A Visual Guide to the Manila-Acapulco Galleons

No description provided.The Manila Galleons were a fleet of Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice a year across the Pacific Ocean between the Philippines and Mexico from 1565 to 1815. They established and maintained the Manila-Acapulco trade route, the longest trade route in history at that time. The galleons were primarily used to transport luxury goods such as silk, spices, porcelain, and fine textiles from China to the New World, exchanged for silver from Mexican mines, which was in high demand in Asia.

This maritime route played a crucial role in linking the economies of Asia and the Americas, facilitating not only commerce but also cultural and technological exchanges. The operation of the Manila Galleons led to significant economic and social impacts in both regions, helping to integrate the economies of the Spanish Empire into a global trade network. The journey was perilous, with threats of piracy, severe weather, and navigational challenges making each voyage hazardous. The Manila Galleons symbolize an early form of globalized trade, connecting distant parts of the world through their maritime voyages.

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