THE PORTUGUESE, THE MARITIME SILK ROAD AND MACAO’S CONNECTION WITH THE PHILIPPINES IN THE LATE MING DYNASTY
This article interrogates how the Portuguese, leveraging the Cape route and the Maritime Silk Road, linked Europe with China and, crucially, Macao’s connection to the Philippines during the late Ming dynasty. It argues that Portuguese expansion did not overturn pre‑existing Asian trade systems but r...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
April 2002
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40002/2663 |
| Summary: | This article interrogates how the Portuguese, leveraging the Cape route and the Maritime Silk Road, linked Europe with China and, crucially, Macao’s connection to the Philippines during the late Ming dynasty. It argues that Portuguese expansion did not overturn pre‑existing Asian trade systems but rather integrated into regional networks, temporarily diverting a portion of commerce and introducing new financial technologies, notably bills of exchange, within an existing mercantile framework. By tracing the Lisbon–Macao–Manila circuit, the study situates Macao as a pivotal entrepôt and intercultural contact zone where European merchants operated under Chinese commercial norms and with local intermediaries.
Methodologically, the work synthesizes maritime and diplomatic sources, port-by-port itineraries, and financial practices, drawing on both primary records and historiography (including assessments of the Cape route’s impact by contemporaries and later scholars such as Vitorino Magalhães Godinho). It also engages archaeological and textual evidence that attests to China’s longstanding nautical capabilities and the South China coast’s role in regional exchange. The analysis situates the exchange of goods—spices, silk, porcelain—and the mobility of people and ideas within a network that connected China with the Philippines, mediated by Macao’s Chinese, Portuguese, and local communities.
The principal finding is that European participation, while innovative in instruments and strategic placement, reinforced rather than replaced Asian trading circuits; Macao emerges as a pragmatic conduit of cross‑cultural and commercial encounter in the Maritime Silk Road during the late Ming era. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |