The Myth That Spain Took All The Gold From The Americas

One of the most frequently repeated claims about Spain's presence in America is that Spain "took the gold" from the continent. However, a rigorous analysis of historical data and current mining shows that this statement is more myth than proven reality. 

Between 1492 and approximately 1820, during more than three centuries of Spanish presence in America, some 200,000 kilos of gold were extracted from all Spanish American territories. The figure may seem high when presented in isolation, but it changes radically when compared to current gold extraction. Today, more than 1,000 metric tonnes of gold are extracted annually across the American continent, a figure exceeding one million kilograms per year. In comparative terms, the Americas currently extract several times more gold in a single year than the total extracted during centuries of colonial rule. It is also worth asking who extracts this gold today. Most of the activity is in the hands of large international mining companies, many of which are based outside the countries where they operate. American and Canadian companies control a very significant part of the mining operations.

It is also necessary to clarify how the tax system worked during the Spanish period. The Crown did not appropriate all the gold extracted. Precious metals were subject to the so-called quinto real, a 20 per cent tax that originated in Castilian legal tradition and was already applied to mining before the discovery of the Americas. The gold had to be declared and melted down in official foundries, where the portion corresponding to the king was separated. The rest remained in the hands of the miners and owners, who used it to pay wages, purchase goods, or reinvest it in the local economy. Over time, even this percentage was reduced in certain regions to encourage mining activity.

Against this backdrop, the historical data is even more revealing: of the approximately 200,000 kilos of gold extracted in the Americas during the Spanish period, only about 20 per cent was sent to the Iberian Peninsula. Most of it remained on the continent itself and was used to build cities, roads, bridges, ports and highways, as well as to finance universities, town halls, cathedrals, churches, hospitals and relief centres.

To claim that Spain "took the gold" from America is not history; it is propaganda. The numbers, the laws and the works that still stand today prove that this narrative does not hold water.