War and Gold: A Five-Hundred-Year History of Empires, Adventures, and Debt
Several centuries ago, a Spanish chronicler referred to his countrymen’s lust for gold as a “disease of the mind and soul.” As this fascinating survey reveals, this lust to accumulate gold and silver that began with the conquest of the Americas has proved to be both a blessing and a curse. The plundering of the wealth of several indigenous civilizations made the Spanish Empire the greatest power in Europe. Yet it eventually led to the demise of Spanish power, as incessant warfare to defend its colonial possessions and trade routes bankrupted the treasury. Furthermore, the insertion of massive amounts of gold and silver into the European economy fueled rampant inflation. On the other hand, the use of gold as a standard to gauge the value of paper money was a vital source of economic stability, and some economists still mourn the abandonment of that standard. This is an easily digestible melding of history and economics that helps explain both the past and present sources of wealth and national conflicts. --Jay Freeman