ABSTRACT
Spain’s control and colonization of the Philippines greatly depended upon Mexico, and in the next two and a half centuries two or three galleons each year sailed from Acapulco to Manila to strengthen ties between the two areas. Silver flowed from America to the Philippines whereas silk was the chief cargo America imported from the Philippines*. The silk goods received in the Philippines, except for a few goods consumed locally or sold to Japan, were then shipped by galleon for sale in Spanish America. The Chinese raw silk that arrived in Mexico was then processed and woven for shipment to Peru. According to a report in 1637, over 14,000 labourers worked in this textile industry. In 1565 when the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines, they recognized that trade with China had to be maintained with silver. In 1436 the Ming government allowed silver to become a legal tender, and for the next five centuries China used the silver standard.
