• DOI:10.1177/084387149500700208
• Corpus ID: 163709949

The Yards at Cavite: Shipbuilding in the Early Colonial Philippines

@article{McCarthy1995TheYA,
  title={The Yards at Cavite: Shipbuilding in the Early Colonial Philippines},
  author={William J. McCarthy},
  journal={International Journal of Maritime History},
  year={1995},
  volume={7},
  pages={149 - 162}
}

• W. J. McCarthy
• Published 1 December 1995
• History
• International Journal of Maritime History

Among the most lucrative and long-lived of Spanish colonial commercial activities was the so-called "Manila galleon trade" between the Philippines and Mexico. Ships sailed across the Pacific annually, exchanging Mexican silver for Chinese manufactured goods obtained at Manila. The trade lasted from 1572 to 1814 and brought fabled Asian luxuries directly into the Spanish empire. At first, ships built in Spain cost less, and the Spaniards continued to use Atlantic ships as well as many from Asian yards, principally in Cochin and India, although the latter sources were forbidden after 1679. Several shipyards were built in the Philippines as the decades progressed. The advantages were obvious: the dependence of the colony on trade and the availability of excellent hardwood timber, skilled Chinese or Spanish shipwrights, and inexpensive indigenous labour. Known for their high quality and durability, the vessels were often lauded by contemporaries. The Augustinian chronicler Casimiro Diaz called them "the best that can be found in the universe." They were also applauded for their reasonable price.' Yet despite the comparative advantages that underlay the decision to construct them in the Philippines, they also proved quite problematic and surprisingly expensive, once the practice had been undertaken for