Did Spain steal Latin America's gold?

by HOOBBIDON

There is a' meme' in Spanish-speaking culture in which a person from Latin America tells a Spaniard to "give back the gold", although this phrase is mostly used in humorous contexts. How historically correct is it to say that "Spain stole gold from Latin America"?

indianatarheel

The Spanish stole a lot more than gold from Latin America, but yes they did export a lot of gold from the New World back to Spain. Arguably more notable was the silver; the Spanish had notable mints and produced coins in Mexico City; Potosi, Bolivia; and Lima, Peru. The coins produced here were mostly pieces of eight or Ocho Reales, which essentially became the Spanish dollar or the basis of the economy. The Spanish crown quickly went into debt when they began to see the riches of the Americas and basically spent the treasure they didnt have yet on more ships and building up a military, etc. So there was a ton of gold and silver being transported back to Europe as quickly as possible.

There were several Spanish "treasure fleets" that were lost to hurricanes between 1566-1790 during the age of colonization. Perhaps the most famous of the treasure ships is the 1622 Atocha, found in the 1980s by Mel Fisher, with an estimated worth of up to $400 million dollars, much of that in gold and silver bars and coins. Other treasure fleet ships that went down in 1715, 1733, 1699, 1554, and other hurricanes have been studied and in many cases previously salvaged in the Florida Keys and in the Gulf of Mexico, such as the San Pedro Underwater Archaeological State Park in the Florida Keys and the Padre Island shipwrecks in Texas. Additionally, there's some shipwrecks with evidence of silver smuggling, such as the 1725 BegoƱa in the Dominican Republic, a Spanish vessel with loads of unmarked silver that they were trying to transport back without paying taxes on. Also worth noting that these were the days of piracy in the the Caribbean and Atlantic, which is a big part of why the Spanish ships traveled in fleets, or flotas, often accompanied by several heavily armed galleons.

Of course, gold and silver weren't the only exports. Tobacco, sugar cane, fruit, dyes, vanilla, and cotton were all huge export industries. There was also the export of Indigenous peoples back to Europe, and the import of disease and people from Europe that led to the decimation of Native American populations. The Europeans' need for labor in the mines and the rapidly growing tobacco, sugar cane, and cotton agricultural industries led to the rise of the Atlantic slave trade beginning in 1526. The economy of the whole world changed a lot very quickly, and while Spain was the first European power to begin conquest of the New World, they didn't dominate for very long and for most of colonization they were one of five major European powers in the Americas along with England, France, Portugal, and Holland.

Another "fun" fact is that Columbus' initial contract with Spain promised him 10% of whatever riches he found, a noble title, and governorship of any lands he "found". Unfortunately for him he wasn't a very good governor and was arrested in Hispaniola and returned to Spain in chains after a revolt from the Spaniards in 1498 along with charges of mistreating the Indigenous population. He was also stripped of his titles. He died relatively poor in 1506, although he did get to make one more voyage across the Atlantic after his imprisonment. He actually wasn't really well remembered or celebrated until the United States took up Columbus as a symbol of America and established Columbus Day as a federal holiday in 1892 basically as a apology to Italy because of recent violence against Italian immigrants.

jmkSp

u/indianatarheel has already provided a very good answer. Yes, the Spanish crown did export/extract silver (and gold, but mainly silver) from America to the Old World, and used forced labor to do so.

But to my point: what does mean "steal"? According to the view of the Spanish Crown, this was not steal, as those parts were rightfully in their hands. It's very curious that there was a debate in the Spanish intellectual world of the time about whether servitude of the Indian was moral or not, but it does not appear to have been a strong debate whether the silver could be "exported". The only hint of debate that I can see is some of the Archives of the Salamanca School (the prominent school of though in the Spanish XVI century, which discussed about other this, the limits to the power of Spain in America and the purpose of being there); there, the situation of the silver is mentioned as something "that the Spaniards can import as much silver as needed, as long as it does not harm the natives and part of it goes for their benefit". You have a good summary of the discussions of the School of Salamanca in many documents: this one in the International Red Cross is a good start (in Spanish, unfortunately: https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/S0250569X00001576a.pdf )

Of course, none of this is unexpected (empires always find a way to say that they are doing the right thing), but I hope that this small exploration of the justice of silver extraction from the Spanish Crown point of view at the time could be useful.