[Woebama]

This is testified by the statement of a prominent official, Alfonso Nunez de Castro in 1675: “Let London manufacture those fine fabrics of hers to her heart’s content; let Holland her chambrays; Florence her cloth; the Indies their beaver and vicuna; Milan her brocade, Italy and Flanders their linens...so long as our capital can enjoy them; the only thing it proves is that all nations train their journeymen for Madrid, and that Madrid is the queen of Parliaments, for all the world serves her and she serves nobody.”
___________________________________________________________

Frighteningly similar to the free trade “who cares” attitude towards foreign manufacturing.

Wow.

[WashingtonSource]

bump

[2banana]

The irony of this is that Spain was ruled by a warrior aristocracy tempered by centuries of constant warfare against Islamic hordes and Christian heretics. These nobles looked down on merchants and manufacturers and disparaged their mundane professions only to find that without a strong domestic business class they could not afford the fleets and armies that guarded the empire they had built.

By the time of the Spanish-American war - the Spanish Army and Navy were a joke.

[Woebama]

The U.S. trade deficit is nearing Spain’s nadir of imports being double exports.

__________________________________________

Another striking comment in this. Thanks for posting.

[Little Ray]

I have been listening to Empires of the Sea. I thought some of Spain’s issues sounded familiar.

At least we still pay our soldiers on time...

[pgkdan]

Today, the American “empire” is also trying to consume more than it produces. The U.S. trade deficit is nearing Spain’s nadir of imports being double exports. Both government spending and private consumption are financed heavily by debt. Washington is printing money, the modern equivalent of digging gold out of the ground, rather than earning the means to pay its bills. And the political and military elites are apparently indifferent to the fate of domestic business and industry. Americans must learn more from the Spanish experience than just the perils of appeasing terrorists—and take corrective action while they still can.

Too bad we didn't learn in time...

[mjp]

but it could not produce the goods it needed at home, which in the long-run proved fatal to its standing as a Great Power and as an advanced society.

Like the Romans before them,the Spanish made conquest and plunder - not industry, production, trade, and commerce - their economic goal

[wolfman23601]

Isabella was a Hapsburg herself so it could be argued just as easily that the Germans held that empire (it later fell into the hands of Charles V who was king of a lot of places and Holy Roam Emperor).

That said, there are striking similarities in the governing of Obama and Philip II of Spain, who squandered any power Spain had left in the Elizabethian Age.

[egannacht]

Not a fan of Spain or the Hapsburg empire due to their involvement in removing the templars, inquisitions against so-called heretics, jews, and moors. The dictatorship that destroyed Catalonia, Grenada, and Navarre introduced intolerance and a form of centralized economy into relatively free lands and free economies. Ancient Catalonia of Spain and France was the envy of Europe. Spain killed tolerance, killed freedom, killed free markets, and killed the brain trust that existed.

As far as I’m concerned, Spain is a glaring example of how not to form a government, a tolerant society of freedom, or a highly evolved capitalist economy that the framers of the US Constitution took note, and avoided installing. You’ll notice any lands controlled by Spain have had trouble with allowing freedom and their economies are systemically deeply troubled.

[rae4palin]

Everything old is new again. Thanks for the post.

[C19fan]

The domestic Spanish economy at the time of their dominance was centered on wool production; the Mesta. This restrictive corporation prevented any other enterprises to rise. The Spanish crown favored this arrangement because of the short term taxes it was able to collect; levying tolls on the annual sheep migrations and selling rights to monopolies. As others mentioned the social stigma against trade was much stronger than in the North Atlantic countries. The analogy to the current situation would be US corporations instead of investing in “building the better mouse trap” using their allied in government to cement their privileged positions. One can add the continued growing hatred of private enterprise on the part of the Democratic elite.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

The Spanish Armada could have crushed England if not for British espionage and a cunning ambush. History would be very different today if Spain had won that war regardless of economic flaws.

Queen Elizabeth was wise in how she handled espionage and how she led her best tacticians. I’m not saying that the ambush with fire ships was her plan, but she put a good team together.

I believe that war had as much to do with the shifting of Spain to England as economics.

[Personal Responsibility]

The Spanish nobleman had foolishly elevated consumption, a use for wealth, above production, the creation of wealth.

---

How true this is.

[SunkenCiv]

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