IN SPAIN, NO CIVIL WAR, NO PROTESTANTS, NO CAPITALISTS

SPANISH KINGS TOO OBTAIN NEW RESOURCES,

AND THEIR IMAGE CHANGES

AS DOES THAT OF FRENCH KINGS

Charles V by Titien, 1548, Prado

• But those resources come from the outside,

not from local producers  

Origins of Spain's new revenues --Flanders and the New World

• They finance 150 years of hegemony
and Spain's Golden Age
with its churches, theater decors
and thousands of plays.  

• They finance the Inquisition as well, 
which takes off in the 16th century
and works as do all official neutralizations of wealth

° It uses up funds...

Auto-da-fé in Madrid by Franciso Rizzi, 1683, Prado

Tribunals appear throughout Spain and in the territories it controls. Each remunerates two or three Inquistors (thoroughly trained members of the elite) plus notaries, lawyers, scribes, doctors, prison guards and executioners.

-- The faith of remembrance: Marano labyrinths,
 by Nathan Wachtel, 2009

°...while reinforcing power...

 Color by Almamy

In Goa the Church replaces the king, in the mid-18th century 

Victims must repent before the king (if outside Madrid, before his representative). They learn afterwards whether they will be pardoned or immediately burnt.

° ...with the difference that the spectacle
is burning alive,
which flames and night make still more terrifying 

Penitents by Goya, end 18th century

• The regime makes the defenseless the enemy:

Forcibly converted Jews or Muslims 

who may still retain ancestral practices.

But not Protestants,

whom the archaic monarchy

keeps from even starting.

So Spain does not change...

Saint-James of Compostella / Internet, photographer not named

 The facade is rebuilt in the 18th century -- with 16th-century decor.

...and when its outside revenues give out,
France sucks it into its orbit as inexorably
as African producers sweep away the old kingdoms
when the Atlantic slave trade ends.

End of this chapter. 

*     *     * 

Next chapter, 

V.3.

Absolute Monarchy wins