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)
#2Marx 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 better bet, in the long term.
The Spanish gold disappeared into economies with a better sense of what value is.
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#3Marx 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…
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
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#4Marx 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...). It also enabled the funding of numerous stupid wars, with the human cost they bring. The name of this process is called the Dutch Disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease
Arab states could get into the same trap
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#5Marx 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...…
never heard of the dutch disease (i am dutch). pretty cool comment thanks.
kind of funny to think they still have trouble to actually extract that gas due to activism around earthquakes and ppl not eager to move away from these places. also now the climate push.
it kinda looks (from an uneducated perspective) they suffered this disease for nothing.
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#6Marx 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…
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
then,
selling people a better understanding of why they find things valuable, is worth a lot!
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#7Marx 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…
Marx called gold "the money-commodity" and said that paper money (even early fiat currency) always represents gold/silver in circulation.
The massive Spanish purchases of weapons and other manufactured goods from other countries in the 16th and 17th centuries played a large role in jump-starting the capitalist economic revolution in Europe.
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#8Marx 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…
spain was no longer a major player in world politics by 1800s, but they had a good 2-3 century run. not sure if the monetary crisis was really did them in, or more just it being the ebb and flow of history. britain's world dominance is long over too. if they did "fuck up", it was because charles v was the first global hegemon, nobody know how to do that, he was in uncharted territory. and obviously no, the merino sheep weren't a better bet long term, that's absurd. global dominion required a cohesive domestic home country to serve as the wellspring of power, not the fractured foedal remnants of a mediaeval europe that required constant war to keep together. and then of course, industrialize early.
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#9Marx 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…
Gold is a VERY unique metal and its value comes directly from that. Particularly the complete lack of oxidation, I'm sure it was seen as absolutely magic that it would not tarnish while every other metal known at the time would oxidize very easily.
Value is ultimately always in the eye of the beholder.
Re: What happened to all the gold Spain got from the New World? (1985)
#10510 tonnes went to Moscow to never be seen again.