this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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Mercantilism, I’d say. It was the nobility/aristocracy attempting to corral the supplanting of the old feudal manorial political economy with the new international trade and markets political economy by putting it in a box that they could still control. Hence the American Revolution being spurred in part by the policies regarding the East India Company.
A good example is to contrast Colonial Spain to Colonial England. One was locked in the decaying form of colonial conquest due to an over-reliance on Gold/Silver and religious control (Spain), while the other headed full speed into the Industrial Revolution and capitalism despite it ravaging and destroying their society and populace (England).
Spain valued stability and good conditions for Spaniards in the core over adapting new industrial developments because they had a de-centralized feudal-like structure with powerful conservative aristocracy, whereas England had no qualms about feeding the English population into the meatgrinder via mass proletarianization and going full speed into the void, and had the centralized system to enforce it.
This obviously came to a head when the Spanish sail armada was destroyed by English steam ships.
When did that happen? lol
I was conflating two different things in my head, the 1588 battle of gravelines where the Spanish armada was heavily damaged by British fire ships and storms. This was a bit before the age of steam, which was more around 1770, 200 years later. Britain did adapt to the age of steam a lot better than the Spaniards did but I was incorrect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Armada