However, more substantive trans-Pacific economic exchanges only began after the Forty-niners came to join the California Gold Rush and the population of the U.S. Pacific Coast increased substantially. The only exception was the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, in which Spanish trading ships sailed between Acapulco and Manila once or twice a year when the Spanish viceroy of Mexico ruled the Philippines.
Today the EU has an elected Parliament with a central institutional role; it co-decides on legislation, mostly on a par with the Council; it has budgetary  7  and oversight powers; in short, though within a narrower mandate, its status, composition and powers are largely comparable to those of parliaments in any democratic polity.