The Empire That Went Bankrupt 9 Times (While Owning The World)

King Philip II of Spain was the richest man in history. He owned the silver mines of Potosí and the gold of the Aztecs. He ruled the first empire on which the sun never set.

So how did he manage to default on his loans 9 times?

This is the story of the "Resource Curse," the Spanish Armada's financial disaster, and how the richest empire on earth was destroyed by bad credit, mutinous soldiers, and predatory bankers.

Imagine finding a mountain made of solid silver, mining it all, and still ending up unable to pay your bills. This isn't fiction; it’s the history of the Spanish Empire.

In the 16th Century, Spain was the master of the world. They controlled the Americas, the Philippines, and the vast silver mines of Potosí. Every year, the "Treasure Fleet" arrived in Seville loaded with billions in today's value. Yet, between 1557 and 1662, the Spanish Crown defaulted on its debt nine separate times.

How? Because they fell victim to the "Resource Curse." The flood of silver caused massive inflation (The Price Revolution), making Spanish goods too expensive to export. Meanwhile, the King spent every ounce of silver on endless wars, borrowing heavily from Genoese bankers against future shipments. When the ships were late—or the wars dragged on—the ponzi scheme collapsed. Spain proved a timeless economic law: Money is not wealth. Production is wealth.

In this video, we breakdown:

The "Cerro Rico": The mountain in Bolivia that funded (and doomed) the empire.
The Price Revolution: How too much silver caused the price of bread to skyrocket.
The "Dutch Disease": Why Spain stopped making things and started buying everything (making their enemies rich).
The 9 Defaults: The timeline of the crashes (1557, 1575, 1596, etc.) and the banking crisis that followed.

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