All I Can Handle

In schools, we have all been taught that the Philippines was sold by Spain for 20 million dollars to the Americans in 1898. In today's world, such information would have been flagged as false news because it lacks context. So let us provide context. In those days, any dollar amount was convertible into a certain weight of gold and in 1898, $20.67 were equivalent to a troy ounce of gold. In other words, the Philippines was sold to the Americans for 967,586 troy ounces of gold. In today's spot market prices, this would be equivalent to $1.7 billion. According to the World Bank, our economy is currently worth $361.5 billion. So did Spain get a bad deal? Another thing that will add context to all this is knowing that Spain lost the war with the United States and the "sale" (if you can call it that) of the Philippines and other territories was part of the terms negotiated in the treaty of Paris that Spain agreed to. If you play Civilization V , you may have experienced los