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Spanish Spain historia economica de España economia 16th 17th centuries
Spanish Decline: Concept of Wealth
Figure 1.--Education is today recognized as an important aspect of national strenth. This was a concept developing in Protestant northern Europe, but not in Spain and the rest of Catholic soutern Europe. Look how literacy grew exponentially with the Protestant Reformtion. Notice the decline in Belgium. What is now Belgium was part of the Netherlands asd had coverted to Protestantism. The decline represents Spanish reconquest during the fight for Dutch Independence. Source: Our World in Data. Buringh, E. and J.L. Van Zanden, "Charting the 'Rise of the West': Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, a long-term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries," The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 69, No. 2 (2009), pp. 409-45.
Of all the factors that undermined the Spanish Empire and the Latin American republics that grew out of it was the concept of wealth. In the Spanish mind wealth was a finite substance to be dug out of the earth like gold and silver. In Mexico and Peru the gold and silver was produced by Amer-Indian campesinos under horrific conditions as virtual slaves. An even greater source of wealth was agriculture which produced crops. In both Spain and the Spanish colonies a small group of landed families who owned almost all of the land. The land was worked by land-less peasantry who eked out a basically subsistence existence. In Spain it was the basically feudal peasantry. In the Empire it was the landless Amer-Indian peasantry. The merchant class was much less important than in England. And there was no real concept that the population was Spain;s greatest resource and to develop and nurture that population was the real way of generating wealth. This would be a concept that began to develop in Protestant society, basically because one of the basic tenants of Protestantism was to study the Bible which of course required the ability to read. This set the Protestant countries of Northern Europe as well as the English colonies in North America on the path to educating the population, creating societies that could generate wealth as never before. Spanish sources wax eloquently about the glories of Spanish Spanish authors, artists, scientists, and architects. And there were real achievements. Only there were so few literate people in Spain and Spanish colonies that only a very narrow segment of the population was exposed to those achievements--about 5 percent, less in the colonies. [Buringh Van Zanden] Literacy was low in Europe, but especially low in Spain. It is difficult not to see this as a factor in the decline of Spain and its empire with literacy rising in the countries that Spain was competing against. A variety of factors can affect literacy, but clearly a major factor was the Protestant Reformation that Luther launched (1519). Beginning with the Protestant Reformation, literacy began to increasing in Norther Europe and did so exponentially. And literacy did not increase in Catholic southern Europe. This relates to the fact that a major tenant of all the different Protestant reformers was the need to read the Bible, and this inckuded women. Of course to do that you had to be able to read. This meant that not only were more and more of the European population was able to appreciate a country's cultural achievements, but more and more of the population could help create such cultural accomplishments as well as to generate technological and economic advances. A country with a literate population were much more capable developing both culture and wealth--the two are highly correlated. Note the high ranking of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, surely a factor in the economic rise of both countries. And the decline in Belgian literacy occurred after the Spanish reconquest re imposition of Catholicism in the southern Netherlands. Also important to note is how Spanish literacy rates did not increase significantly despite the huge influx of wealth from the American colonies--especially gold and silver. France is also interesting. Literacy was below the Western European average and not increasing, even though thanks to its productive agriculture, France was the richest country in Europe. After the Netherlands, Sweden reported the most impressive increase which correlated with the rise of Protestantism here. Germany is an interesting case. Literacy rose, but not spectacularly. It is important to note, however, that half of Germany remained Catholic during the Reformation and the German states were devastated by the Thirty Years War (1618-48). Although the future United States is not included here, academic studies shoe that literacy rates were much higher in the Thirteen Colonies than in England, ranging from 60-80 percent depending on the colony and chronological era {Grubb]. Some of the English colonies even exceeded 90 percent.
Sources
Buringh, E. and J.L. Van Zanden, "Charting the 'Rise of the West': Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, a long-term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries," The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 69, No. 2 (2009), pp.409-45.
Grubb, F.W. "Growth of literacy in Colonial America: Longitudinal patterns, economic models, and the direction of future research," Social Science History Vol. 14, No. 4 (Winter, 1990), pp. 451-82.
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