Philippine global trade turns 450 next week

CEBU, Philippines - Next week will be the 450th anniversary of the start of global trade in the country, but unlike other significant events of the Philippine history it would be marked without celebration.

Reverend Father Tito Soquino, executive director of Sto. Niño de Cebu Social Development Foundation (SNAF), said Cebu was instrumental in the first global trade following the discovery of the route to Mexico by Fray Andres de Urdaneta.

 He said Urdaneta was the lead navigator of the Miguel Lopez de Legazpi Expedition that arrived in Cebu on April 27, 1565. His experiences as a mariner earned him the distinction of being an experienced navigator. He started venturing into the sea at the age of 17.

The return trip from the Philippines to Mexico on October 30, 1565 proved to be a milestone in navigational history.

It was to be the longest voyage ever taken, up to that time, 7,644 miles navigating unknown routes in 130 days.

Soquino said it was Cebu that introduced globalization and trade to Mexico because of Urdaneta’s Turna Viaje or return route to Acapulco in Mexico.

 “This is the earliest form of global trade. Products from Cebu and Manila were traded to Mexico,” he said.

Urdaneta’s route, the first trans-Pacific maritime trade route, was used as basis of the Manila-Acapulco trading Galleon, the first global trade.

The global trade had been in existence 250 years ago even before people thought of globalization.

The significant trade route connected Mexico and the Philippines for some 250 years (from 1565 to 1815) giving rise to a wide range of exchanges between the continents, from material goods, agricultural practices, knowledge and belief systems, to traditions and cultural practices. 

 Soquino said the year 2015 is not only a historical year for the country but also an economical year.

 This year also marks the 450th anniversary of the start of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade and the 250th anniversary of its end.

Urdaneta received his seafaring baptism on the expedition of Loaysa which Carlos V sent to the Spice Islands (The Molucas) in 1525 as part of the race that Castille and Portugal were running for control of such economically valuable islands.

 The nautical leader of the expedition was Elcano, an expert in circumnavigation. He was at the helm of the ship “nao Sancti Spiritus,” with Urdaneta aboard but without a specific area of responsibility.

He was born in 1498 in Villafranca de Guipuzcoa, Spain.

On March 20, 1553, he became a member of the Order of Saint Augustine, heavily involved in the education of the native nobility. He died in Mexico in 1568.  (FREEMAN)