You appear to be correct, loki, according to wiki it was taxes and the plague that sent the Spanish economy into reverse, not inflation: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Spain)
Despite a couple of such bloopers, Ascent is an enjoyable and informative watch. I think the key message so far is that, since it was invented by the Mesopotamians, fiat money has been the primary driver of human wealth creation, and the modern economy made possible by the creation of the banking system. And gold and silver is essentially just another form of fiat money in that it has little or no intrinsic value and can be debased, for example, by new discoveries.
