Signs of the Times - September 2017 - 20

AT LARGE

PERUVIAN GOLD AND
THE ELECTRA GLIDE

DAREK

JOHNSON
is ST's Editor-at-Large.
Email him at darek.johnson
@stmediagroup.com.

Are those who disregard history destined to repeat it?
like to read strange stuff.
Like, treatises on string
theory or historical
accounts of how much
gold and silver Spain pinched from
Latin America during its 300-year
occupation. String theory says all
matter is made up of short and tiny
"strings," ones so small they breezily
flow through atoms, rocks and - get
this - us. In this model, some physicists proclaim we're not flesh and
bones really, but a loosely assembled
collection of tiny particles that form
flesh and bone.
Think of this the next time you're
at the gym. Imagine your body linked
by self-regulating particles, like leaves
on a tree, but with tiny, microscopic
strings riding a breeze that's journeying through you.
No wonder it's so difficult to build
muscle mass.
Unless you slept through it, you
might remember your high school
history that said Spain, at different
times, held all US lands west of the
Mississippi, and most lands south
(except Brazil) to Tierra del Fuego. Its
300-year hegemony over Latin America
(1519-1832) allowed Spain to mine and
export approximately $527.3 billion
(in today's US dollars) in gold and
silver. In addition, approximately 1.86
million Spaniards immigrated to the
Americas during that time, followed
by another 3.5 million in the postcolonial era that ended in 1950.
However, like the string in string
theory, Spain's then-imported wealth

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20

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

SEPTEMBER 2017

passed through the country in an
almost invisible manner, just as the
theoretical strings that might be
passing through you right now. You
might sometimes see your business in
a similar light; that is, your policies,
concepts and ideas akin to invisible
strings that breezily pass through such
loosely linked objects as employees
or bank accounts.
Spain's empirical gains allowed the
accumulation of immense wealth.
John Maynard Keynes, creator of the
Keynesian economic theories, in his
book Treatise on Money, said, "The
modern age opened with the accumulation of capital which began in
the 16th century ... which resulted
from the treasure of gold and silver
which Spain brought from the new
world into the old." Early descriptions
tell of heaps of Inca gold and silver
at Spanish docks and that precious

metal, once in action, transformed
the economy of Western Europe -
and eventually England, the US and
the world. It also sowed the seeds for
modern economics and the manifestations, concepts and systems that
are still discussed today. Inflation,
for example, cash flow, international
banks and bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy? As early as 1557, Spain
suspended payments to lenders and
thereby declared its first bankruptcy;
it did it again in 1570, 1575, 1596, 1607
and 1647. The reason was Spain's cash
flow collapsed when Peruvian silver
mine production, the last new-world
resource, declined. Sadly, Spain's
leaders had not used the wealth
to develop other profit-producing
mechanisms. See it like using your
signshop profits to buy an Electra
Glide instead of a CNC router or
digital print machine.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signs of the Times - September 2017
