Manila, 1662

Bartolome de Letona described the extent of Manila’s trading network in 1662:
[T]he commerce of this city [Manila] is extensive, rich, and unusually profit- able; for it is carried on by all these Chinese and their ships, with those of all the islands above mentioned and of Tunquin [Tongking], Cochinchina, Camboja, and Sian [Siam] – four separate kingdoms, which lie opposite these islands on the continent of Great China – and of the gulfs and the numberless kingdoms of Eastern India, Persia, Bengala [Bengal], and Ceilan [Ceylon], when there are no wars; and of the empire and kingdoms of Xapon [Japan]. The diversity of the peoples, therefore, who are seen in Manila and its environs is the greatest in the world; for these include men from all kingdoms and nations – Espana, Francia, Ingalaterra, Italia, Flandes, Alemania, Dinamarca, Suegia, Polonia, Moscobia; people from all the Indias, both eastern and western; and Turks, Greeks, Moros, Persians, Tartars, Chinese, Japanese, Africans, and Asiatics. And hardly is there in the four quarters of the world a kingdom, province, or nation which has not representatives here, on account of the voyages that are made hither from all directions – east, west, north, and south.