Spanish Galleons in Singapore Tell Powerful Trade Story
Don’t fret about the fragmentation of the world economy. Trade routes have had their ups and downs for centuries.
What the ship owners of the past knew about globalization
Photographer: Georges Gobet/AFP/Getty Images
Chip wars wouldn’t faze 17th-century Augustinian monks in the Philippines. The friars and their Spanish patrons might have waved away trendy economic concepts like reshoring and friend-shoring. Efforts to sideline China or ringfence manufacturing and technological development may well have met with guffaws.
Commonly described as being in retreat, globalization has taken many forms over the centuries. It didn’t begin when the Cold War ended or even in the late 1970s when Deng Xiaoping began opening China’s economy. Trade and investment links are in a constant state of evolution. That’s the takeaway from a compelling display on the banks of the Singapore River. For anyone depressed about contemporary attempts to erect barriers between goods, people and capital, a visit to the Asian Civilizations Museum should provide relief.