The rise of Spanish Manila marked the first time in world history where all hemispheres and continents were interconnected in a worldwide trade network. Thus, making Manila, alongside Mexico and Madrid, the world's original set of Global Cities, predating the ascent of modern '''Alpha++''' class world cities like New York or London as global financial centers, by hundreds of years. A Spanish Jesuit Priest commented that due to the confluence of many foreign languages gathering in Manila, he said that the confessional in Manila is "the most difficult in the world". Another Spanish missionary in the 1600s by the name of Fray Juan de Cobo was so astonished by the manifold commerce, cultural complexity and ethnic diversity in Manila he thus wrote the following to his brethren in Mexico: