La Carrera del Pacífico y el horizonte comercial peruano a mediados del siglo XVIII (1740-1760): proyectismo, espacio económico y el Galeón de Manila.

Abstract

The transpacific trade route, officially established and settled between Manila and Acapulco, was irremediably affected by the solutions applied due to the war difficulties since 1739.  The pressure and severity exerted by the British enemy hindered its continuity to the point of its interruption, forced and ordered. While the use of “registros sueltos” was prolonged, a reflection and alternative proposals became inevitable, among which the sights set on the Viceroyalty of Peru emerged as the main stimulus for the recovery of trade in the Philippine Islands. Although these options were not completely new, they added to the framework that interconnected the official trade of the Pacific Race with the depth of the paths reached by Asian goods. The bankruptcy attributed to the “registros sueltos” is an issue that has not been sufficiently nuanced if we focus on the voices that were raised from the islands to directly reconnect, in these petitions, the Archipelago with the Peruvian coasts. These, in addition to being understood as a call typical of a difficult commercial situation, invite us to reflect on the relationship between the different overseas commercial interdependencies in the mid-eighteenth century. With this work we intend to shed light on a specific period of the commercial relationship in which new measures converged with their effects: the generalization of loose registrations together with different proposals for the reform of the commercial regulations of the Manila Galleon.