Heyday of Manila Galleon Trade

Timeline

1. 1593Madrid · SpainKing Philip II of Spain issued an edict limiting the Manila–Acapulco sailing trade to two galleons per year and strictly regulating the types and quantities of cargo, attempting to balance monopoly profits against silver outflow and laying the institutional framework for the trade boom of the 1590s.
2. 1590–1599Along the Pasig River, Manila · PhilippinesEach sailing season, merchant ships from Fujian and Guangdong arrived in Manila carrying silk, porcelain, and cotton cloth, exchanging them for American silver. Silver inflows grew steadily in the 1590s, making Manila an entrepôt linking China, Southeast Asia, and the Americas, with Chinese merchant guilds playing a key intermediary role.
3. 1590–1599Acapulco · MexicoSpanish galleons from New Spain carried silver mined at Potosí and elsewhere across the Pacific each year, a voyage of about four months. As Potosí silver output climbed in the 1590s, the volume of silver flowing east to the Americas via this route expanded, creating the first large-scale one-way transoceanic flow of precious metals in history and profoundly affecting Ming taxation and the commodity economy.