The Spanish Empire is the textbook example of why hoarding gold isn’t a ticket to long term prosperity for a nation. The true wealth of a nation isn’t even “natural resources”, it ultimately lies in the quality and nature of its people.
very nice and people affirming....but a nations natural resources come in closed second....just ask Norway. Germany has very productive people and runs a trade surplus, and at the same time are very practical about gold. their central bank is number four in gold reserves and holdings
Spain did not hoard the gold removed from the Americas. The gold was traded away to China and the east for stuff.
Spain spent the gold on high living
Spain didn't hoard the gold and silver it looted from the New World, it spent it is as fast as it could, and as fast as it could borrow against future shipments of gold and silver. The flood of precious metal allowed the government to crush native industry under heavy taxes and moronic regulation, but still keep spending. It brought abroad the things its crushed domestic industries could no longer produce.
When the flood of precious metals from the New World, basically free money that the government and those close to it got to squander, slowed, and then dried up, Spain was screwed. Its whole system of government and economy was based not on production, but on grabbing a share of the government's money. When the government went broke the private economy, moribund from taxes and regulations, could not pick the slack, and the country spent the next several centuries in poverty.
Any resemblance the between the policies of the Spanish Hapsburgs and Bourbons, and the way the Democrat Party combines taxes, regulations, and borrowing/printing greenbacks, is chillingly apt.
if you truely believe that then a quick trip to your local walmart should strike fear into you for the future of our country.
I feel like I am on a special needs bus every time I venture out these days.