Areas Covered in the Session:
1.  Manufacturing is the foundation of national affluence and military power. Loss of manufacturing superiority has been a leading indicator of national decline. There have been no historical exceptions.
•  The decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, then arguably the most powerful country in Europe, began in the mid-16th century when its economy continued to rely on agriculture rather than manufacturing.
•  The discovery of gold in the New World ruined Spain and Portugal by encouraging them to purchase, rather than make, manufactured goods. Their rivals England and Holland ended up with all the gold, and England even bought the vineyards of Oporto (the source of Port wine) from the Portuguese much as Chinese companies are buying companies and real estate in the United States today.