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Welcome to Keith and I don't 
tread on anyone in the 

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Libertarian Institute. 
Here is a section from Thomas 

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Sol's book Basic Economics 
titled Imperialism. 

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Conquests have transferred 
wealth as well as cultures among

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nations and peoples. 
During the height of the Spanish

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Empire, more than 200 tons of 
gold were shipped from the 

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Western Hemisphere to Spain, and
more than 18,000 tons of silver.

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King Leopold of Belgium likewise
took vast riches from the 

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Belgian Congo. 
In both cases and others, 

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imperial powers extracted huge 
amounts of wealth from some 

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conquered peoples, often through
forced labour. 

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Of those peoples, as John Stuart
Mill put it, conquerors have 

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often treated the conquered 
peoples as mere dirt under their

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feet. 
This was true not only of 

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European conquests in the 
Western Hemisphere, Africa and 

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Asia. 
It was equally true of 

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indigenous conquerors, of other 
indigenous peoples in all those 

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places, and of Asian, Middle 
Eastern and North African 

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conquerors who invaded Europe in
the centuries preceding 

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Europeans invasions of other 
lands. 

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From a purely economic 
standpoint, putting aside the 

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painful implications of such 
behaviour for human nature in 

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general, the question is how 
much did these conquests and 

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enslavements of the past explain
economic disparities among 

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nations and peoples in the 
present? 

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There was no question that 
during the centuries when Spain 

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was the leading conqueror in the
world, it destroyed whole 

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civilizations such as those of 
the Incas and the Mayans, and 

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impoverished whole peoples in 
the process of enriching itself.

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Spain's empire in the Western 
Hemisphere extended continuously

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from the southern tip of South 
America all the way to the San 

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Francisco Bay, and also included
Florida, among other places, 

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while there were also parts of 
Europe ruled by Spain and, in 

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Asia, the Philippines. 
But there was also no question 

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that Spain is today one of the 
poorer countries in Western 

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Europe. 
Meanwhile, European countries 

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that have never had empires such
as Switzerland and Norway have 

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higher standards of living than 
Spain. 

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While the vast wealth that 
poured into Spain from its 

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colonies could have been 
invested in building up the 

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Commerce and Industry of the 
country and building up the 

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literacy and occupational skills
of its people, this wealth was 

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in fact largely dissipated in 
the consumption of imported 

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luxuries and military adventures
during the Golden Age of Spain 

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in the 16th century. 
Both luxuries and war were 

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primarily for the benefit of a 
ruling elite rather than for the

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advancement of the Spanish 
people at large. 

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So in other words, saying that 
Spain benefited from imperialism

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is like saying America benefits 
from invading Iraq, Afghanistan,

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Yemen, Libya, and Pakistan 
because Boeing, Raytheon, and 

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Northrop Grumman gained a lot of
wealth. 

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It's not that the entire society
benefits as a whole. 

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Some parasites within that 
society benefit at the expense 

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of others. 
As late as 1900, more than half 

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the population of Spain remained
illiterate. 

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By contrast, in the United 
States that same year, a 

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majority of the black population
could read and write despite 

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having been free Less than 50 
years a century later, the real 

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per capita income in Spain was 
slightly lower than the real per

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capita income of black 
Americans. 

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Like many conquering peoples, 
the Spaniards in their golden 

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age disdained commerce, industry
and labor, and their elites 

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revelled in leisurely and 
luxurious living. 

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This led to a large and 
continuous drain of precious 

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metals from Spain to other 
countries to pay for imports. 

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Silver could thus become in 
short supply within Spain just 

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weeks after the arrival of ships
laden with silver from its 

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Western Hemisphere colonies. 
The Spaniards themselves spoke 

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of gold as pouring down on Spain
like rain on a roof flowing on a

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way. 
Immediately. 

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Nor were Spaniards unique among 
great conquering peoples and 

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having little to show 
economically in later centuries 

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for their earlier historic 
conquests and exploitations of 

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other peoples. 
The descendants of Genghis 

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Khans, vast conquering hordes in
Central Asia, are today among 

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the poorer peoples of the world.
So are the many peoples in the 

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Middle East who were once part 
of the triumphant Ottoman Empire

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that ruled conquered lands in 
Europe, North Africa, and the 

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Middle East. 
Nor have the descendants of the 

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peoples of the Mongol Empire or 
the Russian Empire been 

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particularly prosperous. 
Britain might seem to be the 

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exception in that it once had 
the largest empire of 

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all-encompassing 1/4 of the land
area of the earth and 1/4 of the

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human race, and today has a high
standard of living. 

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However, it is questionable 
whether the British Empire had a

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net profit over the relatively 
brief span of history in which 

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it was at its ascendancy. 
Individual Britons such as Cecil

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Rhodes grew rich in the empire, 
but the British taxpayers bore 

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the heavy cost of conquering and
maintaining the empire, 

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including the world's largest 
burden of military expenditures 

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per capita. 
Britain also had at one time the

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world's largest slave trade in 
its empire. 

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But even if all the profits from
slavery had been invested in 

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British industry, this would 
have amounted to less than 2% of

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Britain's domestic investments 
during that era. 

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The economic record of slavery 
in general as a source of 

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lasting economic development, is
unimpressive. 

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Slavery was concentrated in the 
southern part of the United 

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States and in the northern part 
of Brazil, and in both cases 

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these remained less prosperous 
and less technologically 

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advanced regions of these 
countries. 

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Similarly in Europe, where 
slavery persisted in Eastern 

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Europe long after it had died 
out in Western Europe, the 

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latter being for centuries the 
faster growing and more 

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prosperous part of the continent
right up into the present day. 

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Slavery continued in the Middle 
East and in parts of sub-Saharan

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Africa long after it was 
banished from the rest of the 

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world. 
But the Middle East and 

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sub-Saharan Africa are today 
places noted for more poverty 

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than for economic achievements. 
In short, forcible transfers of 

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wealth from some nations or 
peoples to other nations or 

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peoples, whether through 
conquest or enslavement, can be 

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large without producing lasting 
economic development. 

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A vast amount of human suffering
may produce little more than the

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transient enrichment of 
contemporary elites who live in 

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luxury and invest little or 
nothing for the benefit of 

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future generations. 
What was said of serfdom in 

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Russia is that it Simply put, 
much wealth in the hands of a 

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spendthrift nobility would apply
to other systems of oppression 

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elsewhere that contributed 
little or nothing to economic 

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development. 
By and large, imperialism cannot

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be said unequivocally to have 
been a net economic benefit or a

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net economic loss to those who 
were conquered. 

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In some cases it was clearly one
rather than the other. 

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But even where there were long 
run benefits to the descendants 

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of conquered peoples, as in 
Western European nations 

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conquered by Romans, the 
generations that were conquered 

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and lived under Roman oppression
were by no means necessarily 

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better off. 
However, even such a British 

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patriot as Winston Churchill 
said we owe London to Rome 

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because the ancient Britons 
created nothing comparable 

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themselves. 
Yet the sufferings and 

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humiliations inflicted on 
ancient Britons provoked a mass 

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uprising that was put down by 
the Romans with a merciless 

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slaughter of thousands. 
What can be said from an 

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economic standpoint is that 
there was little compelling 

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evidence that current economic 
disparities between nations in 

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income and wealth can be 
explained by a history of 

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imperial exploitation. 
There were usually large 

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economic or other disparities 
before these conquests, and 

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these pre-existing disparities 
facilitated worldwide conquests 

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by relatively modest sized 
nations like Spain and Britain, 

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each of which conquered vastly 
larger lands and populations 

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than their own. 
Thank you for watching Keith and

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I don't tread on anyone in the 
Libertarian Institute.