The Jesuit Global networks of exchange of Asian goods: A “conflictive” musk load around the middle of the seventeenth century

ABSTRACT In 1648, a Portuguese ship that left Macau sank off the coast of the Philippines. The local authorities in Manila confiscated and sold all of its goods. This led to a dispute with the Jesuits, who claimed a certain amount of musk belonging to the Vice Province of China, the sale of which would support their religious mission. This article offers an analysis of this event, focusing on the dispute between the mentioned parties, but also as an example of the complex global networks of goods exchanges and economic interests in these regions of Southeast Asia in the middle of the seventeenth century.