This meant that almost everyone in China had to produce something that could be sold for silver, which usually meant silk. In fact, the Ming government often required people to make silk. That glut of silk inevitably led to a price drop, which hurt the Chinese economy, but not nearly as much as it hurt the Spanish economy, where almost every silk producer was put out of business. So much for the idea that global outsourcing is a new problem. You'd think that all this silver would make the Chinese incredibly rich, just like the Spanish, right? Yes, just like the Spanish, in that they got rich, but they didn't stay rich. The Ming government also failed to peg taxes to inflation and spent too much on defense, notably the Great Wall.