To extend the motor/fuel metaphor, in the case of Spain, much of the "fuel" was useless and simply evaporated. On the other hand, the fuel was more useful to England, which had a proletarianized work-force (and a certain elasticity to supply) so that the increased demand could realize some extra surplus-value rather than simply causing inflation.
(Of course, the first individuals who received the gold and similar loot got a good deal for themselves.)
Jim Devine, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; web: http://myweb.lmu.edu/jdevine/
This does not square with D. A. Brading's account in "Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico: 1763-1810" (Cambridge Press, 1971). He claims that Mexico City was as advanced as Boston. Manufacturing was financed with profits from gold and silver mining.
"In 1804 the corregidor of Quer�taro counted 18 factories (obrajes) and 327 workshops (trapiches) in his town, the former group operating 280 looms and the latter up to 1,000. The larger firms wove woollen ponchos, blankets, serges, and sarapes while the smaller produced coarse cottons. In addition, there were another 35 workshops making hats and ten treating leather and suede goods. Estimates as to how many people were engaged in this industry varied. In 1803 the factory owners admitted that they kept over 2,000 men shut up within the walls of their prison-like establishments. In the same year the corregidor stated that some 9,000 persons of both sexes were occupied in the spinning, weaving and finishing of cloth. The industry�s consumption of wool averaged about a million pounds and the value of its product was later reckoned to reach over million pesos a year. These figures, moreover, excluded the 3,000 workers employed by the tobacco monopoly."(6)
The same kind of evidence exists for Spanish cities. Gold and silver were not used wastefully in Spain. They helped to fuel a mercantile capitalist system. Spain was eclipsed by England not because it had different class relations but for other reasons that are too complex to go into here. I will say this, however. Spanish agriculture was based on tenant leasing, just like England. Even Robert Brenner admits this.
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