“In the case of Spain, the expulsion of the Jews led them to flee to Amsterdam, and as a result, this set in motion the decline and fall of Spain. The Jews developed insurance, banking, and the first stock exchange all in Holland. Eventually, it was the merger of the Dutch and English in 1689 that transferred that knowledge to Britain, giving birth to the Bank of England in 1694 and the London Stock Exchange.“

Martin Armstrong

(Holland became the first ‘capitalist’ country in the western world and as a consequence the richest for some time)