This is true. Mostly because of the silver standard in China.
The Mexican pieces of 8, coined from the mines of Potosi was the largest and most used currency in Asia and the Americas. It was the precursor of the dollar and was the world's first global currency.
BTW we Filipinos would like to thank the Viceroyalty of New Spain since due to the fact that we were constantly at war (Against Brunei, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Chinese, the Japanese and etc.) we constantly had a running budget deficit in the Philippines but we managed to stay afloat due to the yearly subsidy and military reinforcements which Spanish-Mexico sent to us.
~http://www.slideshare.net/officialLS...lleon-trade-ii