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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
The ports where the bullion was loaded in the Gulf of Mexico (Vera Cruz) or the Caribbean (Nombre de Dios).The Spanish ships needed to be out of the Gulf of Mexico before the hurricane season and away from the coast of Cuba by early summer. Between 1550 and 1650 ships from Mexico and the isthmus of Panama converged on Havana where they took on water and supplies for the transatlantic voyage to Spain. The fleet bound for the isthmian Caribbean port of Nombre de Dios, known as Galeones, left San Lucar, the port of Seville, in mid-April. The Atlantic crossing took five to six weeks on average.The number of vessels arriving in Nombre de Dios, ranged from 27.3 in the decade 1611-1620 to 20.0 in the decade 1681-1690. The size of the ships raising from 240 tons in the 1550s to 400 tons in 1600. Nombre de Dios was a fever ridden location, difficult to defend, and tended to be occupied only at the time of the arrival of the fleets. The ships retired once they had loaded or unloaded their cargoes to the well-fortified port of Cartagena on the northern coast of South America.The Asian ConnectionBut above all the sliver of Potosí was desired in Asia, India and above all to China. In 1565 a direct round-trip link was established across the Pacific Ocean from the Americas when the pilot monk, Andres de Urdaneta, found the long-sought return route from the Far East to Mexico. To get to the Philippines from New Spain (Mexico) was relatively easy and the route was established in the 1540s. Ships needed to sail at a latitude of a least 10 degrees north of the equator in order to catch a favorable wind. The voyage took only eight to ten weeks.In fact, getting to Manila from New Spain was a far easier and shorter voyage than getting to Peru from New Spain (Mexico). It was returning that posed the difficulties. Father Andres de Udaneta succeeded in making the connection between Manila and the Mexican coast by sailing north of the 38th parallel north, off the coast of Japan, before catching the eastward blowing “Westerlies” to take the route across the Pacific reaching the west coast of North America before sailing south to Acapulco.Once discovered this route was followed by the galleons from Manila for over 250 years. The voyage took from four to six months and the loss among the crews was as high as thirty to forty percent. If the voyage lasted more than six months the ships could become floating coffins. In May 1657 the Manila galleon arrived off the Mexican coast under full sail, its treasures intact, but with everyone on board dead.The Parian District in Manila, Manila, 1671, Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla, SpainBut a consequence of the establishment of the trans-Pacific round trip route was that one third of the silver produced in Spanish America between 1565 and 1815 went to the Far East by the Manila galleons, complementing
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