Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)

straightdope.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 159 posts

Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)

#81

Post by nickff »

goodcanadian wrote: post #31
mcc1ane wrote: post #16

> 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!

As a sibling comment said, gold was effectively money. Having more money, without having more products to buy, effectively triggered massive inflation. Prices went up, but the actual supply of goods and services didn't change much. The Spanish economy suffered massive inflation, as did Europe in general to a lessor extent.

Notably, the 'massive inflation' was a rate of 1-1.5% per year...

Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)

#82

Post by AnimalMuppet »

nickff wrote: post #81
goodcanadian wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a sibling comment said, gold was effectively money. Having more money, without having more products to buy, effectively triggered massive inflation. Prices went up, but the actual supply of goods and services didn't change much. The Spanish economy suffered massive inflation, as did Europe in general to a lessor extent.

Notably, the 'massive inflation' was a rate of 1-1.5% per year...

Which, for the gold standard, is still rather shocking.

Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)

#84

Post by delbronski »

hecanjog wrote: post #83
mcc1ane wrote: post #16

> 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!

[flagged]

Smugness level 110. It is a good question. Get over yourself please.

Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)

#85

Post by hecanjog »

delbronski wrote: post #84
hecanjog wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Smugness level 110. It is a good question. Get over yourself please.

Fair enough, but I disagree that it's a good question. "Explain it to me like I'm 5" (not even written out in words, just the abbreviation we all know) is not a curious place to come from, it is a desire for the quickest path to the end/payoff.

Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)

#86

Post by analog31 »

adastra22 wrote: post #18
mcc1ane wrote: post #16

> 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.

That may be true, but a modern money system could get you pretty close to that ideal, where the main difference is the friction of transactions.

It's close to ideal for a loaf of bread, or a bag of nails. I can hop on my bike and turn my money into either of those things in a few minutes. Turning money into a house is further from that ideal of course.

Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)

#87

Post by Loughla »

hecanjog wrote: post #85
delbronski wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smugness level 110. It is a good question. Get over yourself please.

Fair enough, but I disagree that it's a good question. "Explain it to me like I'm 5" (not even written out in words, just the abbreviation we all know) is not a curious place to come from, it is a desire for the quickest path to the end/payoff.

Eli5 is a common way of asking for clarification. That's all.

Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)

#88

Post by financetechbro »

ares623 wrote: post #65
throwup238 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spain’s colonies funneled huge amounts of gold and silver into the European economies without a complementary increase in productivity to absorb it, causing massive inflation. A ship for transatlantic shipping might have first cost 100,000 maravedí to build and equip before the treasure fleet expeditions, but afterwards with so much gold flowing into the economy and lots of competition for a limited ship building ind…

hold up a minute

We’re sadly living through the same thing right now

Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)

#89

Post by SoftTalker »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #82
nickff wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notably, the 'massive inflation' was a rate of 1-1.5% per year...

Which, for the gold standard, is still rather shocking.

Well only with a fairly fixed amount of gold available. If suddenly a vast new supply of gold is discovered, its not shocking that there would be inflation.

Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)

#90

Post by busyant »

hecanjog wrote: post #85
delbronski wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smugness level 110. It is a good question. Get over yourself please.

Fair enough, but I disagree that it's a good question. "Explain it to me like I'm 5" (not even written out in words, just the abbreviation we all know) is not a curious place to come from, it is a desire for the quickest path to the end/payoff.

I think you're taking the comment too literally.

I took it to mean something like, "I won't understand an abstruse Ph.D.-level explanation of what happened. I need an explanation geared toward the layperson."

In fact, I think that's closer to the essence of ELI5--as opposed to literally explaining something at the 5 year old level.

I suppose you can quibble about using the initialism, ELI, but only if you're advocating for people who might be unfamiliar with its use. Otherwise, I don't understand your complaint.

Post reply on HN