In fact, people are right, the Kingdom of Spain at this time was in a state of "strangeness" from top to bottom. The aristocracy was extravagant and extravagant, spends their days only in pleasure, lacks sufficient interest in undertaking state obligations (such as politics or the military), and although they are obliged to do all kinds of work because of the system, they are generally not interested in their own work.

The Spaniards expanded too quickly in the past hundred years, money came too easily, and the domestic production capacity could not keep up with the huge demand of the overseas colonies, so the price of labor in Spain rose rapidly. Coupled with the fact that many legends of getting rich overnight continue to stimulate people's fragile nerves, the traditional concept is subverted, and no one is willing to work hard to get rich, and a large number of adult men have crossed the sea to "wealth" in overseas colonies, which has caused a shortage of labor in Spain, and the price of labor has further risen.

And the rise in the price of labor will inevitably lead to an increase in the price of goods, especially in the era of handicrafts. Under such circumstances, the Spanish royal family, the aristocracy, and the large merchant groups, who had monopolized trade with the colonies, soon turned their attention abroad, and the Dutch, English, French, and German artisans quickly filled the gap in demand, and their goods were so cheap that they suddenly squeezed the costly Spanish craftsmen out of business. Despite the restrictions imposed by the Spanish government, such as the fact that only Spanish goods could be shipped to the Americas, foreign factory owners and Spanish merchants soon colluded to circumvent this clause by smuggling foreign goods into Spanish territory and loading them on ships.

In this way, the Spaniards wasted a huge market for raw materials and dumping of goods. Not only fertilized foreign industries. And by the way, it has caused hyperinflation in its own country. It doesn't get worse than corrupting the social atmosphere and crushing its own industrial base. At this time, the only remaining industry in Spain was probably the luxury industry, because the people who had made a lot of money in the colonies needed a lot of luxuries, and they had nowhere to spend their money. But in doing so, it is also a clear declaration of the collapse of the possibility of capitalism in the Kingdom of Spain, because the luxury market alone will never give birth to industrial civilization.

The upper classes of Spanish society relied on colonial trade to make a fortune, but the lives of the lower classes were increasingly difficult due to inflation and competition from foreign goods. Many simple-minded farmers or craftsmen have little chance of getting rich even if they want to work hard. At this time, the best occupation for them became soldiers, and dedicating oneself to God, fighting for the king, and at the same time collecting some spoils for themselves became the best choice for these poor Spanish people in desperation, and this naturally led to the long-term population loss of the Spanish kingdom.

Spanish society is now a deformed society, in which the country does not produce or produces only a small part of the consumer goods that meet its needs, and the rest is sustained by imports. The whole country was mired in wars, which cost a great deal of money every day, but the pious king ignored this, and he was so fanatical about building a pure Catholic empire under his leadership, so that the kingdom of Spain was further depleted by its meagre vitality.

More than 100 years have passed since the Kingdom of Spain entered such a state. At this time, the whole society was terminally ill. Captain Cuette was a frequent visitor to Spain many years ago, and he knew this very well: "Spaniards often say it. London produces woolen wool for us, Lyon for us silk, Holland for us cotton, Milan for us, Poland for wheat, Moscow for us, Germany for mercenaries, West Indies for sugar...... See, the whole world revolves around Madrid, we don't have to work at all, and naturally foreign businessmen will send them to our doorstep for us to enjoy. ”

"But there is a very important premise, and that is that Madrid still has the silver coins to pay for all this qiē." , and then teased: "But I doubt that Madrid will be able to provide enough money." I've heard that their finances are very tight, and the bankers from Genoa, Judea, and the Netherlands have been coming and going in Madrid a lot lately, and it seems that they are going to borrow a lot of money again, but the question is can they afford it? Without the lovely silver coins, Madrid will be like a proud lady who has been stripped of her dress, and will become an ugly old woman who no one cares about. ”

"Spain's recent move has been unusual, they are recruiting troops on a large scale, while they continue to build ships. To this end, they collected large sums of tax, which further sparked tensions in Navarre, Aragon, and Naples, where the inhabitants were already angry at the Castilian extortion, and they only needed an opportunity to revolt against Castilian rule on a large scale. "Captain Couayt is a Dutchman, and naturally has a natural hostility towards the Spaniards, so it is a pleasure to talk about the plight of the Spaniards today.

It is said that in such a strange country as Spain, since the 16th century, the government of the Kingdom of Spain has leased the taxing power in many places to some tax collectors - mainly Genoese and Venetians. At the same time, the Genoese also had monopoly trading rights over commodities such as wool, iron, timber, salt, silk, and leather, while the financial industry in Spain was controlled by the Genoese along with the Fugger family (who later went bankrupt).

The Spaniards were only interested in conquest and war, and had no interest in running the country. When the Kingdom of Climate was first established, agriculture, handicrafts, and commerce in Spain were all controlled by the Moors and Jews, but Spain expelled hundreds of thousands (about 2o% of the population) from the country several times; Later, the fanatical religious atmosphere also took a great toll on the national exhibition, and many Spaniards were judged for just minor mistakes, such as forgetting to recite the "Glory to All" when reading David's Psalms, such as wearing a white shirt on Saturday, and so on. According to incomplete statistics, 2o people were deprived of their rights, which undoubtedly greatly hurt the economy and society of the Kingdom of Spain, and also planted the seeds of revolt in the country.

A large number of artists, craftsmen or talented people were either burned, expelled, exiled or fled to other countries, which brought the exhibition of industry and agriculture in Spain to a standstill. In order to get out of this predicament, the Spaniards introduced a large number of French craftsmen, such as in Aragon, Navarra and other places, most of the vineyard owners, carpenters, masons, coachmen, rope makers, stonemasons, etc. were French. Even in Madrid at this time, there were more than 40,000 foreigners working in all walks of life.

In short, in today's Kingdom of Spain, foreigners control the country's economy, and the common people of the country are so poor that they go to war, shouting slogans of dedication to the Lord and the King, and participating in war after war that seems to have no end.

"Spaniards are not stupid." Hampton continued to communicate with Couayt in French, "You see Captain Soldado recruiting a ** idler into the barracks, which greatly reduces the chances of a rebellion surviving. These idlers were roughly trained and sent to fight the French, and of course in the event of an uprising or rebellion in the country, they were quickly sent to suppress it, and the king's rule seemed quite secure. ”

"Moreover, I have recently heard that the shape of the shì in France is also quite unstable." Everyone said that a great crisis was brewing in Paris, which even affected the operations of the French ** team on the front line. The Spaniards seemed to see an opportunity, so they decided to step up their efforts to see if they could regain the initiative in the war with France. ”

"But how is it possible that they have to vigorously build ships to fight the East Coasters, and it is said that they will also increase their troops to the New Big 6 to fight the East Coasters? Others don't know, you and I know very well that the naval strength of the people on the east coast is not weak, and Spain needs to build at least 2o-3o more professional warships to be sure of completely defeating the people on the east coast. The cost of building these warships, together with the personnel, weapons, and equipment, required at least five million pesos, a sum that the Spaniards could not come up with in any short time. So what exactly do they want to do? Maybe they thought they could defeat the East Coasters by sending a few random ships? "Captain Couay is a little incomprehensible to the Spaniards, do they have other intentions or are they simply arrogant enough to think that the East Coasters are insignificant?

Captain Couay thought about it, and he felt that the Spaniards might not really have paid much attention to the strength of the East Coasters. Or maybe they only think that the navy on the east coast is smaller, so the Kingdom of Spain needs large shipbuilding to only replenish its strength? Perhaps they also thought that as long as they sent some additional soldiers to the new big 6, they could stop the pirate attacks of the East Coasters? The fall of the Spanish towns of Santo Domingo had reached Spain, and most people were shocked and puzzled by it, but they still did not take the people of the East Coast too seriously. They only had France in their eyes, especially when France was about to fall into a serious internal crisis, and they stared at Paris without blinking, waiting for a golden opportunity to defeat their long-cherished enemies in one fell swoop.

"The Spanish man-made ships were built to ensure the security of the homeland, especially after the two treasure fleets left for the new 6 at the beginning of the year and the end of the year, their homeland defenses were unusually empty, and the last time a grain ship was burned by the east coasters near the Strait of Gibraltar, it caused a shock in Cádiz. Today, when the famine spread throughout Castile, they certainly did not want this to happen again. In addition, sending some of their newly recruited soldiers to the Caribbean or Peru would help to strengthen their defenses there and prevent the city from being lightly captured again, which would cost their king a large amount of tax revenue. ", made an accurate judgment. (To be continued......) u

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