> The problem was that the conquest of the New World left Spain with a lot more money, but not that much more wealth, if you follow me. ELI5, please!
You can't eat gold.
What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
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Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#22> The problem was that the conquest of the New World left Spain with a lot more money, but not that much more wealth, if you follow me. ELI5, please!
They spent a lot of resources (some tangible, some less tangible) and ended up getting a roughly equivalent amount of money out if it
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
understanding what humans collectively find valuable is much more lucrative than understanding why humans collectively find a thing valuable being on this forum for a decade I see people consistently get caught up in the latter, at the expense of noticing the opportunities the same people are here for
One thing you can do when people are spending money on magic beans is point out that magic beans don’t exist and they are all stupid for buying them. The other thing you could do is open a magic bean store.
Ideally you do the first part while buying up all the beans for cheap, then commence step 2: convince people they are super valuable and sell the magic beans for profit.
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#24510 tonnes went to Moscow to never be seen again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Gold_(Spain)
No it didn't. The gold didn't disappear.
Did you actually read the wiki you linked?
Spain transferred the gold to Moscow who liquidated it on Spain's behalf to buy guns, fund the civil war, and deposit in banks.
There's mixed views whether Moscow took too much of a margin, but they melted down gold after selling it and the gold is still in circulation.
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#25> The problem was that the conquest of the New World left Spain with a lot more money, but not that much more wealth, if you follow me. ELI5, please!
Money is the thing you use to buy things. Wealth is having those things. Only in an ideal world are the two the same. The world is not ideal.
But why couldn't they, e.g. buy other people's thing in exchange for their gold? IOW, why is the relevant fact that _Spain_ didn't have much more wealth despite having more gold? Other people in other countries valued (and still value) gold too.
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#26Marx wrote about commodity fetishism. Perhaps the ultimate version is a belief gold is innately valuable. It has valuable properties, but almost its sole function is to be rare and desirable. That we now use gold for electronics in some ways undermines its rei-ification as the personification of value. Spain fucked up. They mistook the gold for something more valuable than Labor. The Merino sheep of Spain were a bett…
Yes, I often say that the gold from America was a poisonous gift. It made the country so rich that they stopped caring about other stuff, they could just buy them from elsewhere. So there was little incentive to manufacture first, and industrialize later. Which is ironic because some of first steam engines you can find in Europe were invented in Spain ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jer%C3%B3nimo_de_Ayanz_y_Beaum...…
Spaniard there. We have gentlemen like Leonardo Torres Quevedo and the 'Telekino', something even the IEEE would get amazed of.
But our damn national motto on R&D was "Que inventen otros" (Let the -foreign- ones invent).
EDIT: It actually was "Que inventen -sth- ellos" (let the others invent -it-).
Something like let's just slack down/keep living under a traditionalistic, rural, Romantic life at the 19th century, let the rest do the modern inventions. OFC as I said Torres Quevedo was the exception, but overall I find our right wing politicians still have that Empire bound mindset. Even the progressive left are almost ranting luddites, they look the Science down from their Liberal Arts thrones.
In the end it's some kind of outdated rural-Romantic idiots fighting another share of left sided outdated jerks with, paradoxically, a similar love to the Rural Spain, with the pure, hard working, 'ecological' peasant against the polluting urbanite.
And sometimes I wish these Boomer (literal boomers in both sides) influenced journalists get to the times for once and all. Use science to fight the climate change. Use libre software to expand education and knowledge like anywere else in History. Act smart and not with the guts.
But that's Science Fiction here.
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#27510 tonnes went to Moscow to never be seen again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Gold_(Spain)
No it didn't. The gold didn't disappear. Did you actually read the wiki you linked? Spain transferred the gold to Moscow who liquidated it on Spain's behalf to buy guns, fund the civil war, and deposit in banks. There's mixed views whether Moscow took too much of a margin, but they melted down gold after selling it and the gold is still in circulation.
Exactly that, never to be seen again :)
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#28> The problem was that the conquest of the New World left Spain with a lot more money, but not that much more wealth, if you follow me. ELI5, please!
Bullion imports caused inflation; the money supply increased without corresponding increases in the production of goods and services. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution