COUNTERFACTUAL QUESTION: WHAT IF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS HAD BEEN FINANCED BY THE ENGLISH?
J. H. Elliott asks the question at the end of his book, THE EMPIRES OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD: BRITAIN AND SPAIN IN AMERICA 1492-1830. I found the question discussed by Fernando Cervantes in the Times Literary Supplement for August 4, 2006. I’ve been thinking about it off and on since then. Elliott answers this question by arguing that if the huge increase in wealth from a hypothetical conquest of Mexico by the English would have switched English and Spanish society. England would have had to develop a bureaucracy to govern their empire, and Henry VIII would not have needed to seize the monasteries. Without money, Charles V could not have been elected Holy Roman Emperor and the Spanish monarchy would have been weak. The Spanish would have done whatever colonizing of the New World they did by strings of trading enclaves, thus strengthening the commercial aspects of the medieval Spanish tradition. I wonder. All of this is attributing a lot to the influence of wealth. I guess this hypothetical is a test of how important I think monetary factors were at that point in history, and, even though I am attracted to economic explanations in history, I am not persuaded
Boy, I sure am. Perhaps because I’ve lived with an economist for so long.