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The royal fifth that drained Spain - not wars, its tax design ruined the empire
A Dutch privateer seizes Spain's yearly silver in a Cuban harbor-can a system of taxes and monopolies explain why the empire kept going bankrupt?
The royal fifth that drained Spain - not wars, its tax design ruined the empire
In this episode, we trace how fiscal choices and imperial institutions shaped Spain's rise and recurring bankruptcies. The episode follows key moments-from early maritime losses and treaties to colonial extraction-and asks how taxation and monopoly policies could have drained the wealth Spain pulled from the Americas.
Person: Piet Hein
Date: 1628
Event: Capture of…
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