"The Philippines in the Maritime Trade of Armenians" - Yuri BARSEGOV

Yuri Barsegov's article is devoted to a little-studied subject in Armenian maritime trade — the participation of Armenian merchants in trading operations with the Philippine archipelago in the 16th–18th centuries. The work was published after the author's death and continues his series of publications on the maritime history of Armenia in the journal ANIV.

Introduction and Methodology
The author examines the "Manila trade" in the context of the world circulation of New World silver, which from the 16th century became the principal monetary metal and the main medium of exchange in trade between Europe and the East. The source base consists of the testimony of European travelers and merchants (Tavernier, Navarrete, Martin), as well as archival documents of the English East India Company (Fort St. George, Madras).

The Key Thesis
Barsegov shows that Spanish rule in the Philippines, established by the Legazpi expedition (1565–1571), created a unique hub of world trade, into which, owing to a policy of strict isolation, only an extremely narrow circle of foreign merchants was admitted. The article's main thesis is:
– access to Manila with "Indian" goods was granted only to Indian Muslim "Moors" and to Armenians;
– among these two categories, it was Armenian merchants who in practice controlled a significant portion of the trade, since the "Moors" lacked the seafaring skills necessary for Pacific crossings.

Economic Mechanisms of the Trade
The author traces the transformation of the "Manila trade":
– the first, "silk" period, when Spanish galleons carried Chinese silk via Acapulco to Europe;
– the decline of this scheme by the 1640s under the pressure of competition from Persian and Chinese silk, supplied predominantly by Armenians;
– the shift to the "Indian" period of trade, when Armenian merchants, relying on their connections with Goa, Madras, and Macao, acted as intermediaries between rival European colonial systems — the Anglo-Indian and the Portuguese-Chinese.

Contemporary Testimony
A separate place in the article is devoted to the analysis of documentary confirmations of the Armenians' role: letters from Fort St. George (1711, 1730) record that the Armenians of Madras controlled half of India's private trade with Manila, China, and Pegu. Barsegov also examines Le Gentil's "religious" theory, which justified Spain's admission of Armenians and Moors on missionary grounds, and convincingly demonstrates its untenability: in a century and a half of trade, not a single Armenian renounced his faith, nor did a single Moor convert to Catholicism.

Conclusion
The author concludes that the true reason for exempting Armenian merchants from the general ban on trade with the Philippines lay not in religious considerations but in Spain's purely practical, commercial and economic interests: only Armenian ships, often sailing under their own flag, could ensure regular and profitable exchange of goods between distant regions of world trade amid the fierce competition of the European colonial powers.