alt Hacker News> For the latter part of the 1500s and on into the 1600s Spain was a debtor nation, spending more abroad than it took in. The result was a net outflow of gold and silver. Attempts were made to restrict the export of precious metals, but without much success. In the end it all simply dribbled away. 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. They didn’t realize that until too late, and suffered centuries of poverty as a consequence.
Sounds like America since the second half of the 20th century.
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Spain was different. There were no 'proper' colonies, but everyething was deal as if they were an inner province in Iberia. That's the way you could get fancy universities for its time.
But backwards people like Ferdinand the 7th cut down the modernisation of Spain which could boost us up to the level of France if not more. I'm no kidding. Just look at the Cádiz constitution from 1812.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_VII
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Constitution_of_1812
Not bad for its time at all.
Nope. By any objective measure the USA has continued to organically generate enormous amounts of real wealth during that period. We have some issues with inequality and letting foreign countries take advantage of our trade policies but the new wealth is quite real.