After Columbus discovered the New World in the eyes of the Europeans, other ships would visit and collect information. Anyone who has been on a boat in the Caribbean knows it is large area and travelling into the unknown, meeting natives some friendly, some hostile, battling food and the weather would have been trying times for anyone. Eventually, gold was heard about first from the Mexico and the Aztec Empire, then later from the Andes (Peru) and the Incas. To retrieve the gold, Spain sent battle hardened soldiers. In the book The Conquistadors by Hammond Innes published by Alfred A Knopf, New York, 1969, their stories are written about. The Mexico group was lead by Hernan Cortes and the Andes were lead by Francisco Pizarro. They each had different routes, although both started with the groups who felt mistreated by the existing rulers, and felt the Spanish would be better than what is. In Mexico, the Aztec Empire fought against the Spanish, and it was a hard fight to win the capital. In the Andes it was foretold the Spanish were coming and the transition was less bloody than it might have been.

In the book, when war is fought, the Conquistadors were the correct people to send, however when no one is at war, then the management style needs to change. In both cases, the desire of the people in the Spain were the riches in gold and silver which flooded into the country allowing the country to become the richest in the world. There is always a disconnect between head office and the outlaying reaches. There are different agendas – for example: when the Spanish came, they brought the religion of Christianity and saw anyone who was not practicing it as a heathen or undesirable. If they changed, life could change or in many cases they killed people. It is hard for a 10 generation worship system to change overnight, however Central and South America is dominated by the Catholic religion. Some things are better; some are not so good for the natives.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, often times these companies will get bigger with acquisition of hungrier firms and this is when you see management from the acquired company leaving. The older company will be more beaucratic, there will be more rules to follow, however there will be more resources to do something. Some efforts will succeed, some will not but no actions are betting the future of the company.

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