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which_chickWith the exclusive "rights" to everything in the New World, Spain under Ferdi and Bella (Ferdinand and Isabella, The Catholics, because Spain has the charming custom of giving cognomens to their leadership and cognomens are FUN and so I'm gonna use them.) embarked on what historians generally agree is Spain's Golden Age. (Is that because of all the gold? Surely they didn't... It was mostly silver by weight, anyway.)
Ferdi and Bella didn't get to enjoy very much of the New World Loot (NWL). Spain's NWL didn't hit an average of a million pesos (a "peso" here is about 32 modern dollars) a year until the 1531-1540 decade, a fact we learned from Earl Hamilton's Research Paper (see previous entry). Isabella died in 1504 and her lands of Castile (and the associated New World Colonies and their associated NWL) went to her daughter Joanna-the-Mad and Joanna's husband, Philip-the-Handsome (who died in 1506).
In 1509, Ferdi and Charles (Philip and Joanna's son, he was NINE YEARS OLD here so I kinda question how involved he was in this "decision") locked up Joanna-the-Mad on grounds of insanity and she stayed locked up until her death in 1555. I don't expect she did much governing while she was locked up, so we're going to ignore her.
From 1509-1516, Ferdi and Charles-the-boy kind of ran things in Spain. Ferdi died in 1516, so he didn't really get to see much of the NWL arriving on Spain's shores either.
On Ferdi's death, his holdings went to Charles, who was 16 at the time. Charles V (who is A HAPSBURG, yes, THOSE Hapsburgs, through his father Philip) inherits, like, more than half of Europe from his grandfather because Hapsburg. By the time he's 21, Charles is Charles-the-Emperor (he's the Charles in SOME OF the bad portraits of Hapsburg Chins, in case you somehow didn't already know that. There is another, later Charles, Charles-the-Bewitched, who has the Truly Unfortunate lower jaw.) and he emperors over the following things: the Burgundian states, Spain, the Castilian colonies of the West Indies and the Spanish Main (For what it's worth, today I learned that the phrase "The Spanish Main" refers to the coastal MAIN-land adjacent to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico in the New World. That's the fucking Spanish Main. It is Not In Spain. Part of The Spanish Main: Coastal Texas, the eastern coast of Panama, the Yucatan Peninsula. NOT part of the Spanish Main: Spain.), the Aragonese kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia. Oh, and also Austria and the Holy Roman Emperor job.
Charles-the-Emperor stays king of Spain until 1556. During his 47 years (ish) of rule, Spain's NWL grows from less than half a million pesos a year to 3.5 million pesos a year. In 1556, with the hand of age upon him, Charles gives over Spain to his son Philip-the-Prudent and divvies up the rest of his shit in an east-ish/west-ish fashion between Philip and his (Charles's brother) Ferdinand, hoping for an orderly transition of power. This... mostly works? (I'm not really here for "problems of succession in monarchies" or what happens to Charles-The-Emperor's non-Spain holdings. I'm trying to get a handle on what the revenues FOR SPAIN were like, over time, who was in charge when the money was easy, what happened to the money, who was in charge when the money started to dry up, that kind of thing.) Right now I'm sketching the broad outlines of who was in charge when and what the money situation looked like during their rule.
During Philip-the-Prudent's term, 1556-1598, so a solid 40 years, again, Spain's NWL grows from 3.5 million pesos to 13.9 millon pesos per year. Honestly, at this point, Spain has seen its revenues from the colonies expand and expand and expand. The money pouring in must seem... endless and also endlessly increasing. Spain is literally awash in precious metals here, like, Scrooge McDuck territory.
After Philip-the-Prudent we get his son Philip-the-Pious. He rules from 1598 to 1621. Revenues here from the NWL are, for the first time, about-constant at 11 million pesos per year. The massive, massive increases have stopped. The money tops out. It's still A LOT of money, but it's not growing like it used to be doing.
Philip-the-Pious gives way to Philip IV, the Great who ruled 1621-1665. That's another forty-four year term. Way to go on the stability front, Hapsburg monarchy! During the reign of Philip-the-Prudent, the NWL goes from 10.3 million a year to 2 million a year. Here is the decline in revenues starting.
So what happened? How did Spain go from colonial revenues that were over 10 million pesos a year and more-or-less steady for a fifty-year period from 1581 to 1630 to... 2 million a year twenty years later. I am not yet sure what happened and I'm kind of considering ... There's a lot going on here and I think a visual data representation might help me get a handle on stuff. Let me see what I can do on that front. Watch this space.
I do have more work to do to get from the 1660's (where we are now) to 1715, the setting of The Pirate Show, but first I'd like to get straight what I'm thinking of as "The Spanish Era" and kind of nail down what's going on with the colonial wealth extraction thing because reasons.
Ferdi and Bella didn't get to enjoy very much of the New World Loot (NWL). Spain's NWL didn't hit an average of a million pesos (a "peso" here is about 32 modern dollars) a year until the 1531-1540 decade, a fact we learned from Earl Hamilton's Research Paper (see previous entry). Isabella died in 1504 and her lands of Castile (and the associated New World Colonies and their associated NWL) went to her daughter Joanna-the-Mad and Joanna's husband, Philip-the-Handsome (who died in 1506).
In 1509, Ferdi and Charles (Philip and Joanna's son, he was NINE YEARS OLD here so I kinda question how involved he was in this "decision") locked up Joanna-the-Mad on grounds of insanity and she stayed locked up until her death in 1555. I don't expect she did much governing while she was locked up, so we're going to ignore her.
From 1509-1516, Ferdi and Charles-the-boy kind of ran things in Spain. Ferdi died in 1516, so he didn't really get to see much of the NWL arriving on Spain's shores either.
On Ferdi's death, his holdings went to Charles, who was 16 at the time. Charles V (who is A HAPSBURG, yes, THOSE Hapsburgs, through his father Philip) inherits, like, more than half of Europe from his grandfather because Hapsburg. By the time he's 21, Charles is Charles-the-Emperor (he's the Charles in SOME OF the bad portraits of Hapsburg Chins, in case you somehow didn't already know that. There is another, later Charles, Charles-the-Bewitched, who has the Truly Unfortunate lower jaw.) and he emperors over the following things: the Burgundian states, Spain, the Castilian colonies of the West Indies and the Spanish Main (For what it's worth, today I learned that the phrase "The Spanish Main" refers to the coastal MAIN-land adjacent to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico in the New World. That's the fucking Spanish Main. It is Not In Spain. Part of The Spanish Main: Coastal Texas, the eastern coast of Panama, the Yucatan Peninsula. NOT part of the Spanish Main: Spain.), the Aragonese kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia. Oh, and also Austria and the Holy Roman Emperor job.
Charles-the-Emperor stays king of Spain until 1556. During his 47 years (ish) of rule, Spain's NWL grows from less than half a million pesos a year to 3.5 million pesos a year. In 1556, with the hand of age upon him, Charles gives over Spain to his son Philip-the-Prudent and divvies up the rest of his shit in an east-ish/west-ish fashion between Philip and his (Charles's brother) Ferdinand, hoping for an orderly transition of power. This... mostly works? (I'm not really here for "problems of succession in monarchies" or what happens to Charles-The-Emperor's non-Spain holdings. I'm trying to get a handle on what the revenues FOR SPAIN were like, over time, who was in charge when the money was easy, what happened to the money, who was in charge when the money started to dry up, that kind of thing.) Right now I'm sketching the broad outlines of who was in charge when and what the money situation looked like during their rule.
During Philip-the-Prudent's term, 1556-1598, so a solid 40 years, again, Spain's NWL grows from 3.5 million pesos to 13.9 millon pesos per year. Honestly, at this point, Spain has seen its revenues from the colonies expand and expand and expand. The money pouring in must seem... endless and also endlessly increasing. Spain is literally awash in precious metals here, like, Scrooge McDuck territory.
After Philip-the-Prudent we get his son Philip-the-Pious. He rules from 1598 to 1621. Revenues here from the NWL are, for the first time, about-constant at 11 million pesos per year. The massive, massive increases have stopped. The money tops out. It's still A LOT of money, but it's not growing like it used to be doing.
Philip-the-Pious gives way to Philip IV, the Great who ruled 1621-1665. That's another forty-four year term. Way to go on the stability front, Hapsburg monarchy! During the reign of Philip-the-Prudent, the NWL goes from 10.3 million a year to 2 million a year. Here is the decline in revenues starting.
So what happened? How did Spain go from colonial revenues that were over 10 million pesos a year and more-or-less steady for a fifty-year period from 1581 to 1630 to... 2 million a year twenty years later. I am not yet sure what happened and I'm kind of considering ... There's a lot going on here and I think a visual data representation might help me get a handle on stuff. Let me see what I can do on that front. Watch this space.
I do have more work to do to get from the 1660's (where we are now) to 1715, the setting of The Pirate Show, but first I'd like to get straight what I'm thinking of as "The Spanish Era" and kind of nail down what's going on with the colonial wealth extraction thing because reasons.
