@tichoruch @SkinnerPrincip @jomdont@cosmos_atom_@MartinSkold2 King Philip, pausing for a moment between reviewing plans for the new royal palace and getting the latest updates on the wars in England, France, and Italy: Wow, sure is lucky those fully independent conquistadores are sending us so much gold! And entirely of their own volition!
@tichoruch@jomdont@cosmos_atom_@MartinSkold2 That’s an entirely separate point, irrespective of its merits. The sanctimonious Spaniard in the story is absolutely the beneficiary of centuries’ worth of wealth transfer from new world to old.