There is a verse known around the world- in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered the new world. In reality, people had been to America before, however most had not subsequently conquered the country. The next voyages after Columbus, particularly Cortes brought back Aztec gold and soon Spain was the richest country in the world. One of the many books about Spain is one by Robert Goodwin published by Bloomsbury Press, London, 2015. In the book, he focuses says Spain the Center of the World from 1519 to 1682.

The setting of 1492 is Spain has changed hands from the Moors (Muslim) to Habsburg (Catholic) and while being a good country Spain was not the center of the Habsburg empire. When Columbus came along, the wealthiest people were paying high prices for spices and they were looking for alternatives. The Portguese, the Dutch and the Italians were dominating the spice trades and the high profits. Columbus was sent across the seas to bring back spices. He brought back some as well as stories about gold, by the early 1500’s the conquistadors had used force, disease and in-fighting to wrestle control of the Atzec empire to bring riches to Spain. The first voyage included a large gold disc with a design of a beast in its center surrounded by foliage motifs weighing 3,800 pesos de oro(the Atzec’s worshiped the sun and the moon); a large silver disc which weighed 48 silver marks; two necklaces of gold and precious stones, one which has 8 woven threads set with 232 red gems (rubies) and 173 green stones with 26 gold bells hanging from the border.  Upon seeing the riches the new King said we must have colonies and soon all of Central and South America were claimed by the Habsburg empire. In time, the city of Seville where gold and silver and other items were landed would be the center of world trade for a century and half.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, how the company started and what practices it did to accumulate its position is not the most important thing it determining whether to buy a company’s shares or not. In the case of Spain, its wealth came from Central and South America but to manage the wealth which was to keep Spain as the dominant country for almost 200 years is to be celebrated. Management matters particularly when it relates to monarchies and their successors.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.