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Early Modern Hispanic Measures and Currencies

In: The Atlantic World and the Manila Galleons

Author:

José L. Gasch-Tomás

José L. Gasch-Tomás
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Dar Hadith al Hassania

This book aims to articulate a contribution to, and revises, the traditional understanding of the Atlantic World by emphasising the historical connections between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, and the importance of Spanish America in those connections. It explores the degree to which the colonial Spanish American elite and cities were main components of the economic and cultural encounter between the Spanish Empire and East Asia in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the reason why the Manila Galleon route was superseded by the Cape route as the main venue of exchange between the Atlantic World and Asia around the mid-seventeenth century. This book studies the historical factors that fostered trade from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic World in the late sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century. Among those factors, there were the commoditisation of, and growing taste for, Asian goods in Spanish America, the strengthening position of Mexican merchants in the Spanish Empire, and the orientation of Manila’s economy toward international trade and strong commitment of the Chinese economy to silver. The book also analyses how growing international conflicts both in the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, and the delicate balance of powers within the Spanish Empire, weakened the trans-Pacific trade and gave way to the rise of the Cape route.

Early Modern Hispanic Measures and Currencies

Weight Units

In Castile

1 fanega = 54.7 litres
1 arroba = 25 libras (25 lb)
1 libra (1 pound) = 16 onzas (16 oz)
1 libra (1 pound) = 460.09 grammes

In New Spain

1 fanega = 55.5 litres
1 arroba = 25 libras (25 lb)
1 libra (1 pound) = 16 onzas (16 oz)
1 libra (1 pound) = 460.09 grammes

In the Philippines

1 pico = 10 chinantas = 137.5 libras (137.5 lb)
1 arroba = 25 libras (25 lb)
1 chinanta = 13.75 libras (13.75 lb)
1 cate = 1/10 chinanta = 1.375 libras (1.375 lb)
1 libra (1 pound) = 460.09 grammes

Length Units

1 codo = 0.5 varas
1 pie = 0.333 varas
1 vara = 0.836 metres

Currency Units

In Castile

1 real = 34 maravedís
1 real de a 4 or tostón (1 real of 4 pieces) = 136 maravedís
1 real de a 8 or peso (1 real of 8 pieces / “pieces of eight”) = 272 maravedís
1 ducado = 375 maravedís

In New Spain and the Philippines

1 peso de oro común (1 peso of 8 pieces / “pieces of eight”) = 8 reales or tomines
= 272 maravedís
1 real or tomín = 34 maravedís
1 peso de oro de minas = 450 maravedís

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The Atlantic World and the Manila Galleons

Circulation, Market, and Consumption of Asian Goods in the Spanish Empire, 1565–1650

Series: The Atlantic World, Volume: 37

Cover The Atlantic World and the Manila Galleons

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004383616

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 23 Nov 2018

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Front Matter

Back Matter

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