The town now known as Zihuatanejo was a fishing village, surrounded by large haciendas. Between 1680 and 1740 there are indications that the port was used for contraband trade; that is, for trade of arriving Asian products between New Spain and Peru, an interregional trade which had been forbidden. In the second half of the 16th century, the original Spanish shipyards at Zacatula burned. Unable to reconstruct them, new ones were built at Zihuatanejo. The surrounding haciendas occasionally used the bay as a port to ship wood and minerals. The bay was visited during the colonial period by many pirates.