Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;afantiques, post: 2429727, member: 71234&quot;]<i>Ramifications of treasure chest transportation to NY docks must have been an interesting experience with Indian raiders/disguised Indians/bandits on the news a ship was scheduled to arrive</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Better to think in terms of paper, bills of lading, manifests, letters of credit, notes of hand, bank draughts. Moving large amounts of cash would be a rare event. Most settlements would be paper transactions because they were much safer. Large cash sums would usually be sent by naval ship, if they had to go. Merchants with a thousand pieces of gold to remit to the old country would deposit them with a reputable goldsmith, who&#039;d issue a letter of credit payable in London or Utrecht or wherever. Copies of the letter of credit could be sent in three ships, if one was lost, no harm done, no sunken treasure.</p><p><br /></p><p>The goldsmith in London, with a client wanting to invest in the colonies would issue another letter of credit, the colonial goldsmith would pay out the money they had from customer A. Both goldsmiths would get a small cut for the service.&nbsp;&nbsp; No cash need risk the perils of the sea.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is far more boring than chests of dubloons sailing the Spanish Main so Hollywood, source of much misinformation about pirates, the muggers, murderers and rapists of their day, stick to the fabulous treasure model. </p><p><br /></p><p><i>I like to put things in a movie script sort of way</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Make the movie a factual history of banking, to be less of a work of pure imagination.&nbsp; Just because people lived 400 years ago did not make them stupid. </p><p><br /></p><p>In general, pirates did not steal cash, they stole cargoes of whatever the target carried, which they sold off to the local equivalent of a fence at a big discount. </p><p>The pirates were the ones at risk of losing cash, because the black economy depended on it, unlike regular legitimate trade.</p><p>And of course, they would pick on the smallest and weakest prey. Pickings could be pretty slim for the average pirate.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in