By around 1804, Mexico City boasted over 100 "pulperías"—general stores selling a rich variety of global goods: wines from Castile, La Rioja, and Málaga; Castilian vinegar; olives from Seville; Ceylonese cinnamon; cocoa from Caracas; cloves from the Philippines; along with buttons, candles, fine cloths, velvets, and silks from Europe and Asia.

From East Asia came lacquerware, porcelain, ivory carvings, and in-demand luxuries like beaded jewelry, sequins, silk fans with sticks of silver, gold, ivory, tortoiseshell, or wood, Manila shawls, and cotton "paliacates" (bandanas).

New Spain exported to Asia, Europe, and other parts of the Americas: silver in bars, coins, and finely crafted items; cochineal dye, indigo, and logwood for textiles; tortoiseshell and pearls from Baja California; wrought iron items, ceramics from Puebla, Guanajuato, and Nueva Galicia; cotton and wool textiles, chocolate, vanilla, and glassware.

Africa, meanwhile, was the primary source of enslaved people brought to New Spain over three centuries—an estimated 250,000 in total. At the time, slaves were treated as commodities in both practice and law.