The 'eagle coin' and China-Mexico connections in the XIX century: notes on currency, imperialism and good governance

This paper focuses on the legacy of the ‘Manila galleon’ in the nineteenth century, when China still needed to import silver from abroad to sustain its silver-based economy. By that time, the white metal was introduced into the Empire mostly in the form of coins, which were much appreciated for their standard of weight and purity. In the 1850’s, after the independence of Mexico, the famous Mexican silver peso, the “eagle coin”, gained certain quasi-currency status in China: it was widely used for trade and tax remittances and as a store of value. This paper suggests that fiscal and monetary policies in Mexico and China provided the basis for the “silver symbiosis” that shaped the connections between the two countries, and shows how the “eagle coin” passes through the history of Chinese modernity and is a significant, although not yet fully explored, part of China’s encounter with the West.