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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (30492)	5/23/2002 12:58:17 PM
From: frankw1900	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Show me a rich Catholic Country! Ireland. Italy isn't poor. France.

To: LindyBill who wrote (30492)	5/23/2002 1:41:00 PM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 281500

Show me a rich Catholic Country! Depends on when in the development cycle, what other variables were present and active, etc. Not a slam dunk. Moreover, it's possible to argue that some pre-capitalist activities triggered the protestant reformation such that economic activity was the independent rather than dependent, or there is some rather elaborate feedback chain. Not an interesting debate because serious cause and effect language doesn't work terribly well at this level.

To: LindyBill who wrote (30492)	5/23/2002 11:03:26 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 281500

by pointing out that Spain, (and because of that, all Spanish Speaking countries) missed the "Enlightment" completely. Well, you have to take into consideration that Spain, through its American conquests became so rich that its own economic and social development was stunted. They took their riches from their conquered colonies, and didn't need to independently developed it such as nations like England and France were required to do. They too had colonies, but the type of wealth they extracted required more development and innovation. At least that's one prevailing theory about the backwardness of Spanish economics. Hawk

To: LindyBill who wrote (30492)	5/24/2002 12:33:00 AM
From: frankw1900	Respond to of 281500

They are still all tied up with the remnents of the Feudal system. Many Spanish speaking countries are tied up in remnants of the mercantile system to such a degree that capital formation and development is very slow. Does this have to do with religion? I don't know. It's likely the case the enlightenment didn't get to them in a large way and one of the most influential works of the 18th century, Wealth of Nations, which is an attack on mercantilism, probably didn't get great distribution. Now some informed person is going to tell me I'm wrong about the circulation of W o N in Spanish speaking world. There was however, a huge debate about it in Northern Europe and its ideas got great circulation there both inside Reformation and counter Reformation circles. Be interesting to know if this debate ever got to Spain. And, if it did, how big was the interest there?