Superpower to super-broke: Spain's riches to rags story

1590 Spain was shipping huge volume of goods to its colonies but 80 per cent of these goods were imported and not made in Spain itself - as against the British who used to send out British-made goods to India and other colonies. Spain soon began to neglect manufacturing and subsisted on past riches of gold or borrowing on gold. It used its gold to import useless stuff such as bangles and playing cards - hardly the kind of imports to vitalize an economy becoming lazy by the day. Further, the people of Spain did not have the habit to save and wasted money on exotic spices, clothes and arms.

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