Read e-book online War and Gold: A Five-Hundred-Year History of Empires, PDF

By Kwasi Kwarteng

ISBN-10: 158648768X

ISBN-13: 9781586487683

The global was once wild for gold. After getting to know the Americas, and stressed to protect their monstrous dominion, the Habsburgs of Spain promoted gold and silver exploration within the New international with ruthless urgency. yet, the good inflow of wealth introduced domestic via plundering conquistadors couldn’t make amends for the Spanish government’s notable army spending, which might finally bankrupt the rustic a number of instances over and result in the dying of the nice empire.

Gold turned synonymous with monetary dependability, and following the devastating chaos of worldwide battle I, the foremost got here to precise the order of the unfastened marketplace procedure. conflict in pursuit of wealth required borrowing—a speedy compulsive dependency for lots of governments. And whilst humans misplaced self assurance within the promissory notes and paper currencies issued in the course of wartime, governments back became to gold.

In this eye-catching ancient research, Kwarteng exposes a trend of war-waging and fiscal debt—bedmates like April and taxes that return 1000s of years, from the French Revolution to the emergence of modern day China. His proof is as wealthy and colourful because it is sweeping. And it starts off and ends with gold.

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Additional resources for War and Gold: A Five-Hundred-Year History of Empires, Adventures, and Debt

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Spain had discovered the New World and brought it into the structure of European power politics; yet other powers, employing more sophisticated instruments of finance, would soon eclipse the Habsburgs. The rise in prices was extremely important because of the boost it gave to the merchant class. As Keynes noted, ‘a period of rising prices acts as a stimulus to enterprise and is beneficial to businessmen’. While prices increase, the merchant or manufacturer ‘will generally buy before he sells . .

In The Royal Hunt of the Sun, the playwright Peter Shaffer portrays Atahualpa and Pizarro as representatives of two opposed civilizations. In Act II of the play, Atahualpa tells Pizarro, ‘You want gold. I know. ’ Atahualpa replies: ‘It is the sweat of the sun. ’18 The process by which Atahualpa fell into Pizarro’s hands seems almost miraculous. The Spanish accomplished what they had done in Mexico, effectively seizing the head of the empire and taking control by this means. It was the ultimate ‘decapitation’ strategy.

The Duke, perhaps fortunately, allegedly remarked that he was not rich enough to take such risks. Rebuffed by Savoy, Law went to France where he was soon mixing in the highest circles of the nobility and the royal court. Law lived in France from December 1713 until the end of 1720, and these seven years are the best-documented period of his eventful life. Initially, he tried to win over the ailing old King, Louis XIV, to his scheme for a royal bank. Of all the countries in Europe, France was probably the most likely to adopt innovative and daring financial policies.

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War and Gold: A Five-Hundred-Year History of Empires, Adventures, and Debt by Kwasi Kwarteng


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