Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

History

Reader 1

Daniel Livesay

Reader 2

Jonathan Petropoulos

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© 2026 Oscar D Vidaurri

Abstract

This thesis dives into the structure of the early modern global economy through an Annales perspective and focuses on the role that the Manila Galleon played in delivering New World silver to the Chinese economy. Using a methodology that combines qualitative and quantitative strategies, this research challenges the traditional Hamiltonian hypothesis that silver imports from the Americas caused the Spanish Price Revolution. The quantitative portion of the thesis examines Hamilton’s price level index through the use of Stata econometric models to analyze if silver imports from 1591 to 1650 are correlated with the surge in Spanish inflation. The results indicate that, even when accounting for the massive black markets in both the Pacific and Atlantic trades, the Spanish price level did not react to silver imports. Instead vellon and labor productivity were the true drivers of the Spanish Price Revolution. To analyze the impact of the 1593 and 1635 restrictions on the Manila Galleon trade, this study develops a case study on the 1687 Santo Niño y Nuestra Señora de Guía scandal. This investigation reveals that the restrictions on this Braudelian circuit caused mass corruption in Manila. The thesis concludes that the fiscal decline in the Spanish Empire was not due to the collapse of silver or the Price Revolution, but rather the outcome of the dependence on extractive political and economic institutions.

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