Spain and gold

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

In this column:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_437.html

Cecil neglects one pertinent fact: from 1519 to 1659, Hapsburg Spain was almost constantly at war – with France, with the Netherlands, with the Ottoman Turks, with Protestant Germany, with whomever. This of course was a significant drain on resources.

I learn this from Paul Kennedy’s “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers,” which Cecil recommends here:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_437.html

2

So, what, you’re saying they spent it? All of it? [voice rises to an outraged squeak] The same way, when I ask my kid what he did with the money I just gave him, he says, “I spent it”?

Well, I hope they’re happy with their purchases, is all I can say. What’d they buy, anyway–42,682,793 sets of Yu-Gi-Oh cards and a CD player?