The Business Model of the One-Galleon System

The large profits of the Pacific exchange were the result of the monopsomonopsonicnic nature of the market for MexicoMexican peso-minted pesos, whose demand was global but their supply was limited to the mint in MexicoMexico (city) City. This skewed the bargaining power in the Pacific exchange in favour of the wealthy wholesalersMexican wholesalers of Mexico that could control the supply of inputs into the mines and the flow of pesos within New SpainNew Spain, allowing them to become price setters in the international fairs. Manileños, unable to operate beyond the Mexican cartelcartel, sought for ways to minimise its impact and prop up prices. Their response was the limiting of the volume of the trade and the creation of a mirror cartelcartelsellers' to operate in the AcapulcoAcapulcoAcapulco Fair fair. The one-Galleon systemone-Galleon system became a business model through which Manila merchants could enforce their cartel and minimise the disruptions that could result from crossing the largest ocean in the world.