Chapter 441: The Manila Galleon

The Executive Committee meeting room was packed. Besides the Executive Committee members, the heads of almost all ministries and commissions were present—this was a typical expanded meeting. The official reason, of course, was that this was a matter of great importance, a “national policy” level action. In reality, everyone knew how many childhood “pirate dreams” were riding on this.

Even several people from the finance department had come. Their reason was to assess the costs and benefits of the operation, including the impact of such a large influx of silver on the Senate’s financial situation.

The General Finance and Taxation Department was preparing to promote circulation coupons in “yellow zones” like Guangzhou at the end of 1632. This would inevitably require a certain amount of precious metal reserves. The existing amount of precious metals, which was roughly sufficient to meet import demands, would become insufficient. Therefore, this silver income was quite important.

Large wooden basins filled with huge blocks of ice, emitting white, cool air, were placed in the four corners and the open space in the middle of the meeting room. Even so, the room was still somewhat hot.

The Executive Committee meeting room was originally designed to accommodate twenty-five people. Now, with nearly forty people crammed in, the heat radiated by the extra bodies made everyone sweat profusely. However, the atmosphere in the room was enthusiastic, and no one seemed to mind.

Wen Desi, as the Chairman of the Executive Committee, declared the meeting open. Qian Shuiting, carrying his meticulously prepared briefcase of materials, went up to the podium and signaled for the curtains to be drawn—not for secrecy, but because he was going to use a projector.

“Comrades, I will now give a brief report on the operation to rob the Manila galleon,” he said, turning on his laptop and the projector.

He first explained the origin of the Manila galleon. The Manila galleon set sail from New Spain (the Spanish American colonies) in February or March each year and arrived in Manila between May and July. Two galleons were dispatched each time.

The Manila galleon was a royal vessel. Its main purpose in sailing to Manila was to deliver a subsidy to the Governor-General of the Philippines—that is, the administrative expenses of the Spanish colonial government in Manila. The amount of this money varied from year to year, generally between 200,000 and 300,000 pesos.

The largest part of the Philippine colony’s financial revenue came from the silver transported from the Americas, followed by the taxes and license fees collected from the local Chinese. However, compared to the huge expenses and pitiful income of the colonial government, without the royal subsidy, the Philippine government could not be sustained. The Governor-General of the Philippines always pleaded for more subsidies in his letters to the king.

“I have found the detailed amounts of the royal subsidy received by the Philippine colony from the Americas for each year from 1630 to 1634. Last year it was 203,915 pesos, and this year it is 232,569 pesos. We know that each peso weighs about 37 grams, so that’s over eight tons of silver.”

This number was not particularly attractive, so Qian Shuiting had more to add.

“Although the royal subsidy is not very large, the Manila galleon also carries other non-royal property, such as the payment for goods purchased in the Philippines by the Viceroy of New Spain and merchants, and the payment for goods sold in the Americas by Philippine merchants. The amounts of the latter two are very large. The smuggling trade between the two colonies of New Spain and the Philippines is rampant—including the Viceroy himself—and a large amount of Chinese goods is transported to the Americas via this route. Although we cannot know exactly how much silver each ship carries, historically, the Manila galleon has been robbed four times. One time, they got one million pesos in coins; twice, they got goods worth about two million pesos; and one time, they did a sloppy job and still got hard currency worth forty to eighty thousand. So each shipment of silver coins and goods could be worth around one million pesos. If we do it once and capture one ship, we can get at least five hundred thousand pesos—and possibly much more. We know that most of the silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty at the end of the Ming came from the American silver in the Manila trade—so it’s impossible for the Manila galleon to only carry this much silver each time.”

This data caused a stir among those present. The prize was too tempting.

“What is the armament of these ships?” asked Chen Haiyang, the Chief of Naval Operations. He was more concerned about this question.

“According to the information we have, there are two Manila galleons in 1632: the flagship SAN LUIS and the SAN RAIMUNDO. However, the records do not have detailed tonnage information for these ships.” Qian Shuiting pressed a key on his keyboard, displaying the next slide—a cross-sectional diagram of a Spanish galleon.

“However, based on the available information, these ships must be galleons. Please see, this is a typical structure of a galleon,” he said, pointing to the slide. “I have found the composition of the Spanish Far East Fleet in 1627, and we can use the largest ship in it to estimate the equipment and personnel of these ships.”

The flagship of the Far East Fleet: Galleon San Ildefonso, 1400 tons, 41 guns, crew of 651. A slightly smaller one, Galleon Santa Teresa de Jesús, 1150 tons, 39 guns, crew of 495. Galleon Peña de Francia, 1000 tons, 34 guns, crew of 437.

“Because this fleet also had the task of transporting troops for land combat, nearly half of the ship’s personnel were army soldiers and artillerymen. The Manila galleon would not carry so many soldiers. So we can estimate that these two ships should be around 1000 tons, with 40 guns, and 400 soldiers and sailors.”

“Besides gold and silver, the dozens of light and heavy cannons and tens of tons of copper on the ship are also a considerable fortune. If we can tow the ship back, the wood and sails on it would also be very useful.” Wu De’s words immediately revealed the true colors of the Planning Commission.

“Exactly,” Qian Shuiting nodded. “As Defoe said, a ship is a floating treasure chest—especially a regular ship like this that travels between two colonies. The various goods it carries are also a fortune for us.”

“According to your information, our navy should be able to defeat the silver ships with relative ease. After all, our muzzle-loading rifled guns have a much greater effective range, rate of fire, and penetration power than the Spanish culverins and demi-culverins,” said Lin Shenhe, who was attending the meeting.

“Your primitive impact fuzes are useless. We want to capture, not sink. The Spanish, on the other hand, can use all kinds of shells without scruple. But anyway, they don’t have explosive shells, so taking the 901 out to fight them is no problem. When the English fought the Invincible Armada, the typical firing range was only 100 meters,” Wen Zong summed up with great confidence.

Generally speaking, the elders were very confident in their naval vessels. So far, both the 854 and the 901 had been lonely masters at sea, never having truly seen action, except for a few 901s that had performed shore bombardment missions in Shandong.

“However, the main problem is actually searching and finding,” Qian Shuiting said, displaying a map of the Philippines with the projector. “From the known information, the silver ships come from the Philippine Sea to the east, pass through the San Bernardino Strait between Luzon and Samar, enter the Sibuyan Sea, and then pass through the strait north of Mindoro to reach Manila.”

“Isn’t that almost the same route as the coward Kurita, but in reverse?”

“I believe we can choose to intercept them in the strait north of Mindoro, the Sibuyan Sea, or the San Bernardino Strait.”

Someone immediately came out to pick holes: “Forget about the first two interception points. The Philippines has as many islands and straits as ox hair. Where would we get such detailed hydrographic data? If we run aground, it would be a case of trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice. Nimitz ran aground there in the 20th century with his small DDs—and he was forgiven because the hydrographic data there was so complex.”

“I think we might as well just take Manila and directly take over the colony. The Philippines is rich in natural resources…”

“Taking Manila wouldn’t be difficult. The Spanish have few troops in the Philippines.”

Seeing that the topic was about to stray to the conquest of Manila, Ma Qianzhu finally began to speak: “Let me state my position first: I am not in favor of taking the Philippines—it would spread our resources too thin. Secondly, although I don’t know much about the technical aspects of the navy, there are some important impacts to consider first: we are currently targeting Zheng Yiguan as our main opponent and target. Attacking the Spanish silver ships might create another enemy—although we have already fought them in the defense of Bopu, that was not a public act. And we all know that at this time, a large amount of Spanish silver is flowing into China. If we enter a state of hostility with the Spanish, will we lose this source?”

Wen Desi glanced at the attendees. “I think Old Ma has a point. I personally also think it’s better not to make too many enemies for the time being. Even if we can occupy Manila, we don’t have enough manpower to occupy and develop the Philippines now. This time, it’s just about making a score. We can never have too much silver. As for how not to enter a state of hostility with the Spanish, I think it’s just a matter of secrecy. We might as well discuss this issue in detail. Of course, if that doesn’t work, killing everyone is the simplest solution. Old Qian, what do you think?”

“Taking out the silver ships will cause serious economic damage to Zheng Zhilong—we’ve discussed this before,” Qian Shuiting said. “As for complete secrecy, it would be difficult to implement. Our cannons and ships are very distinctive, and we can’t guarantee that every sailor will keep their mouth shut. If we have to tow the ships back to port for dismantling, it would be even harder to maintain secrecy,” Qian Shuiting said.