The Link That Kept the Philippines Spanish: Mexican Merchant Interests and the Manila Trade, 1571-1815

World systems analyses of early modern trade have tended to relegate Latin America to a passive and peripheral role: producing the silver that fueled the growing trade between Asia and Europe. This article takes another look at the importance of silver in Pacific commercial networks linking Asia with the Americas, arguing that the interests of Mexican officials and merchants played a crucial role in sustaining the Philippines as Spain's only colony in Asia.