Communication Challenges in the China Seas: A Survey of Early Modern ‘Manila Linguists’ Birgit M. Tremml-Werner Introduction Regular negotiations between Spanish, Chinese and Japanese natives in the last third of the sixteenth and the first third of the seventeenth century make Manila a promising starting point to shed light on the obscure field of early modern communication. 1 As the temporary centre of trans-Pacific and direct Sino-Japanese private trade, Manila witnessed numerous episodes of intercultural communication in which global players had to find ways to negotiate beyond their familiar cultures and languages. 2 The aim of this article is firstly to analyse the development of a hybrid form of communication during the early period of global exchange based on the Manila galleon trade. Secondly, it will discuss the role of ‘Manila linguists’ during a period of specific cross-cultural operations in the China Seas. The main emphasis here focuses on intermediaries or go-betweens during the initial stage of political communication and foreign affairs at the height of the Age of Commerce, with a specific focus on the Philippines, which, being a Spanish territorial colony differed largely from other European enterprises in the East. By intercultural communication a “situation where at least one of the people in the communicational process does not speak the language of the interaction as her/his mother tongue” is understood. 3 With a focus on Manila-centred intercultural communication, it will be of particular interest to establish as to what extent Spanish, as the first language of the ruling authorities, was used as a lingua franca. 4 While such aspects were usually relegated to a minor footnote in world history, providing answers to the question how loyalty and trust were built opens up scope for various considerations on information and communication systems in early modern cross-cultural settings. The establishment of Manila led to the formation of triangular relations between the Spanish, the Chinese and the Japanese that in turn became the backbone of proto-global trade in 1 For further theoretical consideration see Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya, The Portuguese in the East. A Cultural History of a Maritime Trading Empire (London, New York: Tauris Academic Studies, 2008). 2 Similar issues have been tackled for Portuguese Jesuits in sixteenth century Japan. See J. F. Moran, The Language Barrier and the Early Jesuits in Japan (Stirling: Scottish Centre for Japanese Studies, University of Stirling, 1992). 3 Allan Murray and Ranjid Sohndhi, “Socio-political influences on cross-cultural encounters”, Analyzing Intercultural Communication: [Based on Proceedings of a Conference On "Analyzing Intercultural Communication" Held in Essen, Federal Republic of Germany, Dec. 2-3, 1983] edited by Karlfried Knapp, vol. 1, Studies in Anthropological Linguistics (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1987), 21. 4 Philip Curtin, Cross-Cultural Trade in World History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984).