This book invites the reader to investigate a particular premise of historiography, concentrating on the trade relations between America and the Orient. Here, the work of Mariano Bonialian breaks with the institutionalized interpretation, which has limited trade with the Orient to the eastern borders of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Bonialian, by contrast, recommends understanding the trade with the Orient as the key to comprehending the shifts and continuities among the formal and informal spheres of the Spanish Empire.