La ruta de la plata

China, Spanish America and globalisation | China, Hispanoamérica y la globalización

Commentary and essays

“Long View: The 16th-Century Trade Route That Brought China to Mexico” in Americas Quarterly, April 2019

Peter Gordon and Juan José Morales: The Middle Kingdom is hardly new to Latin America. One trade route dates back to the 16th century, and had major historical implications.

“La Ruta de la Plata y la primera globalización”: Peter Gordon y Juan José Morales en Política Exterior, enero-febreo 2018

Durante 250 años el Galeón de Manila unió Asia y América a través de una red transpacífica. La narrativa anglosajona olvida el papel de China y la América española en la globalización.

“When the Dollar Spoke Spanish”: Peter Gordon and Juan José Morales in AsiaGlobal Online, 25 January 2018

However problematical “global currency” may be to define, we in general know it when we use it. That currency today is the US dollar, but it was preceded in this role by the Spanish and Mexican dollars of the 18th and 19th centuries, the former more accurately called the real de a ocho, or peso. These silver coins were accepted across the world, most notably in China, where they formed not just an important part of the money supply but also a reference against which other forms of exchange, including domestic Chinese taels, were measured.

“China’s Latin America ambitions highlight ‘silver way’ strategy” in Nikkei Asia Review, 8 November 2017

Peter Gordon: Washington should brace for Beijing’s Belt and Road in its own ‘backyard’

“La Ruta de la Plata, el eje de cuatro continentes”, China Hoy, 8 August 2017

Un sinópsis del tema por Peter Gordon y Juan José Morales.

“The ‘Silver Way’: An Alternative to ‘Thucydides Trap'” in The Diplomat, 19 June 2017

Peter Gordon and Juan José Morales: Graham Allison’s famous formula overlooks a crucial historical example: a rising Spain meeting a powerful China.

“What China’s History Says About Its Role in Globalization” in That’s Beijing, 17 May 2017

Jonathan Chatwin: Four hundred years ago, a new trading route linking Latin America with Asia put China at the heart of a globalizing world. So why do we see China as a historical recluse, asks Dr. Jonathan Chatwin, and what does it mean for today’s diplomacy?

“Follow the Money — Silk, Silver, and 16th Century-Style Globalization” in the Los Angeles Review of Books, 22 March 2017

Peter Gordon and Juan José Morales: Lost travelers, when asking for directions at a country store in the backwoods of northern New England, are likely to be told — or, at least, so goes the myth — “You can’t get there from here.” We can’t get to an understanding of China and its place in the world of the 21st century if the understanding of where we are today is determined by a historical narrative that starts in mid-18th century with the rise of Anglo-American dominance.

Video interview in China File, 2 March 2017

“China can evoke old Latin-American ties to bypass US order” in Nikkei Asian Review, 1 February 2017

Peter Gordon: After the Silk Road, the trans-Pacific trade route sustained world economies.

“China can be at the heart of a new era of globalisation”, South China Morning Post, 2 December 2016

Juan José Morales and Peter Gordon go back in history to find thriving trade of global scope that is radically different from today’s, apart from the fabled Silk Road