“Follow the Money”: Interview with Marie Christine Duggan (Part 2)

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In this second part of the interview we learn about what studying economic history can reveal about the past. In particular, we learn about California’s early connections to the Far East, and how competition over the fur trade created some unusual rivalries and alliances.

Highlights of Part 2:

• Franciscan views of money and morality.
• The friar who went shopping in Manila — for two years.
• The Northern Chumash at San Luis Obispo and their successful textile operation.
• Spanish arrangements with their rivals the Russians for otter hunting.
• How the business elite in Mexico City were the wealthiest in the Spanish Empire and how this angered people in Madrid.
• Presidio Commander José De la Guerra and how he rose in power.
• New views on why the Spanish came to California.
• The fur trade and how it connected Hispanic California with Asia.
• Spanish-speaking Chinese in Manila: the contact point for Spanish trade with China.
• The plan to settle California from Manila.
• The “soft Gold Rush” of competition over otter hides.

Listen to Part 1 of this interview.

To Learn More:

• Article: San Blas and the Californias: Hispanic Trade in the Northern Pacific Rim in a Time of Great Change (1767-1820) by Dení Trejo Barajas and Christine Marie Duggan.
• Book: What is Global History? by Pamela Kyle Crossley.
• Book: The Father of All: The de la Guerra Family, Power, and Patriarchy in Mexican California by Louise Pubols — an excellent biography of José de la Guerra y Noriega.
• Book: Art and War in the Pacific World by J.M. Mancini.
• More articles about Spanish exploration and colonization.