This little clip illustrates the uselessness of BBC's video
documentaries. The same is true of those from the American channel PBS. It is a
general and dismal trend of the big television networks, which rules them out as
tools for learning. The images talk only superficially to emotions, and have a
very poor information content. The text, which takes two minutes to be
delivered, could be read in twenty seconds. And it does not make much sense
either: "enough [silver] to finance the entire Spanish empire" may strike the
imagination but is devoid of any serious monetary significance (in fact, if
anything, the gold and silver from the New world contributed to the
impoverishment of Spain in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries).
