And then the English sided with the Dutch and there was a war featuring a disastrous invasion of England called the Spanish Armada in 1588. England's success against the Spanish, even though it can largely be chalked up to weather, was credited to Queen Elizabeth I. That led to a period of wealth and national pride, which meant that people had both the money and the desire to see, I don't know, plays about old English kings named Richard. And that, my friends, is how the discovery of silver in Bolivia contributed to the genius of William Shakespeare. Anyway, American silver didn't cause these wars any more than it wrote Hamlet, but the new wealth made both more possible. Knowing that they had this enormous silver war chest at their disposal made them much more inclined to build all those ships that got sunk in 1588. And soon enough, even a mountain of silver couldn't pay for all their warring and the Spanish crown had to borrow money, which they couldn't pay back, so they defaulted on their debts several times in the 17th century.