Prologue

The forgotten Andrés de Urdaneta

I. A Renaissance Space Race

Setting the scene: Spain and Portugal and competition for spices

Andrés de Urdaneta and the tornaviaje

II. The First Transoceanic Shipping Line

The Manila galleon and transpacific trade

III. The Emergence of the Global Economy

Trade networks of global scope

Movements of good, people and cultures

IV. The First World City

Mexico, where Asia, Europe and the Americas met

Manila, Spanish America’s westernmost city

V. A Global Currency

‘La ruta de la plata’: American silver, the vehicle for international financial integration

The Spanish milled dollar, the first global currency and ancestor of the the US Dollar, Yuan and Yen

VI. The Birth of Globalisation

Global trade networks, shipping lines, integrated financial markets, flows of cultures and peoples, a global currency

Globalisation then and now

VII. Ruta Redux

China and Latin America today

Silk Road parallels and the Ruta de la plata paradigm

Conclusion

The role of historical narrative