Seablindness
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Seth Cropsey. Seablindness
Отрывок из книги
For Mihaela and Gabriel Ethan Cropsey,
whose loving support made this book possible.
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The Council of Finance’s reluctant and consistently slow financial support to the Junta de Armadas, a royal advisory group with directive powers over the navy, resulted in a naval force that experienced sharp rises and declines in size and capability. As do his successors the world over, Martin de Aróztegui, the secretary of the Spanish navy, argued that the consistent provision of money was the “principal foundation” of naval preparations, and without proper funding nothing could be accomplished.26 David Goodman writes in his analysis of the decline of Spanish naval power that every aspect of Spain’s naval planning and preparation was subject to delay and collapse owing to insufficient funding. It is rare to encounter documents, he writes, that are free from warnings of serious consequences if funds were not forthcoming.27
By 1663, the Spanish treasury had become so strained that the president of finance, Juan de Góngora, announced that he had not one real to give to the fleet.28 The Junta de Armadas warned that the fleet was being left with “only the bones and scraps” and, shortly after Philip IV’s death, announced it had no funds, only debts.29 The term “hollow force” did not exist at the time, but Spain’s was a hollow force caused by the twin enemies of a robust one: strategic distraction in the form of land wars and accompanying impoverishment.
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