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Trans-Pacific Silver Flow
In the 1640s, silver from Potosí and Zacatecas flowed in large quantities to China's southeastern coast via the Acapulco–Manila route, entering the l…
Timeline
- 1641–1645Potosí · Upper PeruSilver mines in the viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru continued high output; coins and silver bars were transported overland to Acapulco, awaiting the Pacific crossing as the main means of payment in the galleon trade.
- 1646–1650Yuegang · FujianAfter silver was exchanged for Chinese goods in Manila, large quantities flowed back into China through ports such as Yuegang in Fujian, supporting tax commutation into silver and private commerce in the late Ming, forming a one-way silver flood from the Americas to Asia.
Sources
- Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World — Timothy Brook (2008)
- The Silver Way: China, Spanish America and the Birth of Globalisation, 1565–1815 — Peter Gordon, Juan José Morales (2017)