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Precis: " Born with a 'Silver Spoon': The Origin of World Trade in 1571" (1995) by Dennis Flynn and Arturo Giráldez

In the 1995 article, “Born with a ‘Silver Spoon’: The Origin of World Trade in 1571” by Dennis Flynn and Arturo Giráldez, they claim that global trade emerged when all important populated continents began to exchange products continuously – both with each other directly and indirectly via other continents– and in values sufficient to generate crucial impacts on all the trading partners. For this purpose, they situate Manila as a central point of global trading when Spaniards founded the city’s trading ports in 1571. They continued their argument by explaining how the new opening of a trading route has allowed the movement of silver to cross continents (from the Americas, Europe, and Asia) and how it eventually accumulated in China. What I would like to criticize in this article is its glorifying tone of how Spain managed to create a global trading route and its omission of already established tradings routes within the region. For example, Manila was not necessarily discovered by the Spaniards for global trade in 1571 as the trading port city had long been the junction of trade between different nations, countries and continents, particularly within the vicinity. Thus, Manila did not need the intrusion of Spain to be introduced as a trading route. In fact, the article misses to point out that the reason why Spain established this trading route was to compete with the Portuguese who were already at the forefront of circumnavigating the whole and establishing trading ports in various countries and continents. As such, this move by Spain to establish a global trading route is not so much for economic purposes, but for political presence within the region that could compete with Portugal. Overall, while the article misses out on certain arguments, it is a good read in order to be acquainted with how global trading routes were established and what/who moved between places.

(June 25, 2019)

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