Karl Marx was among the first economists to see that, financially, the Industrial Revolution begins with Atahuallpa’s gold. “An indispensable condition for the establishment of manufacturing industry,” he said in 1847, “was the accumulation of capital facilitated by the discovery of America and the importation of its precious metals.”20 The Genoese and German bankers who underwrote Spain’s empire were awash in bullion looking for something to do. Much found its way to northern Europe, financing shipbuilding, gun foundries, and other imperial ventures. Much
