{
  "id": "manila-galleon",
  "type": "glossary",
  "name": "Manila galleon",
  "summary": "The annual sailing link between Acapulco and Manila that from 1571 to 1815 carried American silver west and Asian goods east — the first sustained trade route connecting the Americas with Asia, and in the economic-history account registered here, the closing link of the first global trade system.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "glossary",
    "global-trade",
    "pacific",
    "silver",
    "spanish-empire"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "reglamento-del-comercio-de-filipinas-1734"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "beneficio-de-patio-silver-amalgamation"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "casas-de-moneda-de-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "spanish-real-global-currency"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "columbian-exchange"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "andres-de-urdaneta"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "garcia-de-palacio-instruccion-nautica-1587"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "veitia-norte-de-la-contratacion-1672"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "grana-cochinilla-de-oaxaca"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "vetancurt-teatro-mexicano-1698"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "villasenor-theatro-americano-1748"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "balsamo-del-peru"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "ordenanzas-de-bilbao-1737"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "spanish-voyages-to-the-northwest-coast"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "sweet-potato-and-the-manila-galleon"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "real-compania-guipuzcoana-de-caracas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "correos-de-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "colonial-records-as-a-climate-archive"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "reglamento-de-comercio-libre-1778"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "silk-raising-in-new-spain"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "situados-de-nueva-espana"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "observatorio-meteorologico-de-manila"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "coconut-and-the-manila-galleon"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "noceda-sanlucar-vocabulario-tagala-1754"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "santos-vocabulario-tagala-1794"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "real-astillero-de-guayaquil"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "sangleyes-de-filipinas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "isabel-barreto"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "memoriales-de-quiros-a-felipe-iii"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "variacion-de-la-aguja-de-marear"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "piloto-mayor-y-cosmografos-de-la-casa-de-la-contratacion"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "universidad-de-los-mareantes-de-sevilla"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "enfermos-en-las-armadas-y-flotas-de-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "corriente-del-golfo-y-el-canal-de-bahama"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "caminos-reales-de-la-nueva-espana"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "seda-de-la-nueva-espana"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "juzgado-de-bienes-de-difuntos"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "flotas-y-galeones-de-la-carrera-de-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "mendoza-historia-del-gran-reyno-de-la-china-1585"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "martin-de-rada"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "seguros-maritimos-de-la-carrera-de-indias"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "What was the Manila galleon?",
    "How long did the Manila-Acapulco route operate?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "The founding of Spanish Manila in 1571 opened the trans-Pacific galleon route between Acapulco and Manila, the first direct, substantial and continuous trade link between America and Asia — the event Flynn and Giráldez identify as the birth of global trade.",
      "sources": [
        "flynn-giraldez-1995"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "The route's economics rested on the silver-for-goods exchange with China: American silver commanded a premium in the Chinese monetary system, and the galleons arbitraged that differential for two and a half centuries within the Seville-centered imperial trade system.",
      "sources": [
        "flynn-giraldez-1995",
        "elliott-imperial-spain"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.85
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [],
  "faqs": [],
  "evidence_tier": "secondary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "industry_observation",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": false,
  "winning_edge": "The galleon usually appears as exotic color; here it is defined as what the economic-history literature says it was — the closing link of the first global trade circuit — with the claims bound to the same registered sources as the instance's silver and exchange objects, so the three read as one system.",
  "confidence": 0.85,
  "last_verified": "2026-08-08",
  "canonical_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/manila-galleon",
  "api_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/api/k/manila-galleon.json",
  "jsonld": {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "name": "Manila galleon",
    "description": "The annual sailing link between Acapulco and Manila that from 1571 to 1815 carried American silver west and Asian goods east — the first sustained trade route connecting the Americas with Asia, and in the economic-history account registered here, the closing link of the first global trade system.",
    "url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/manila-galleon",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-08-08",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Born with a 'Silver Spoon': The Origin of World Trade in 1571",
        "url": "https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/3372215/4433_UBA003000263.pdf"
      },
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Imperial Spain 1469-1716"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "DefinedTerm"
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}