Port cities

THE whole world was connected to each other through trade during the time of Humabon. In Asia — from India to East and Southeast Asia — it was primarily through a maritime-oriented trade network. In archipelagic Southeast Asia, maritime trade centered around a series of interconnected entrepots supplying the needs of global, regional and domestic trade.

As historian Geoff Wade argues, certain policies implemented by the Song and Yuan dynasties in China several centuries before Humabon had tremendous repercussions that were seen — and mostly taken for granted — in the 16th century. For instance, the Chinese pushed Southeast Asia into a sophisticated system of commerce that utilized international metal-based currency and exchange (with fluctuating value) that mesmerized Pigafetta in Cebu.