Currency Last update 31st March 2002

General Outline

Of course, one of the main attractions of piracy, and indeed much of life, was the pursuit of money. Sailors were not poorly paid in comparison to other professions. They were paid about a pound a month, while general labourers were paid only half of that. However, sailors were unable to progress out of the ranks to earn higher wages, except by chance. A master sailor would gain a share of the profits from a journey and hence could earn more money. Sailing was also repetitive and boring. It's not like you could pop down to the corner shop for a game or two of pinball to pass the time.

Pirates, on the other hand, gained a share of the spoils based on the number of men onboard, rather than the majority of money going to mysterious lords and backers. Successful pirate hauls could net each crewman in the vacinity of 1000 to 4000 pounds. Compare this to lords of the day who may not see that much money in a years income. It was also more than banks and merchants could hope to make. The manager of the East India Company only earned 300 pound per year!

Obviously piracy was a way of making huge amounts of money for a small amount of work and comparatively minor danger. It is surprising some pirates returned to piracy time and again, because they had spent such prodigious sums of money and were broke. Even after a couple minor voyages it was possible for them to be fabulously rich. Much must be said for the cunning of the American merchants to loot the looters.

For the fruits of piracy to pay off, a willing market was needed. There was no point capturing expensive silks and porcelains if no one was prepared to buy it. The ports of America were favourite haunts of pirates to offload their booty. The American merchants appreciated this, because it allowed them to obtain goods without paying British import taxes. Also, despite all the modern romanic notions, pirates often captured quite mundane things and had to trade them for money. Jack Rackam, in his two year voyage of the Caribbean, captured 20 ships, most of whom were fishing boats and local traders, from which he could only plunder fish and local produce such as tobacco and sugar. Inventories from captured pirate ships also listed such mundane goods as clothes, books, bibles and ribbon.

Favourite booty among pirate crews was the simple coin. It was easily divided up at the end of a journey, and was easy to spend at almost any establishment. Even when the Portugese ship Nosa Senhora do Cabo (Our Lady of the Cape) was captured on the 26th of April 1721, bearing huge amounts of cash and diamonds, the split did not go well. Each man received 4000 pound and 42 small diamonds. One cranky sailor did not receive the 42 diamonds, instead receiving a rather large one. He proceded to smash the large gem into smaller pieces, claiming he received more than 42 small gems in the process.

Coins came in many varieties, besides the traditional piece of eight (or Peso). There were so many pieces of eight minted and in use in the Caribbean that they were the accepted universal form of currency.

The Dutch were using Daalders, Denmark had the Ducat, France was using the Deniers and Louis D'or, England was using the shilling, guinea and crown, Portugal was using the Crusadoes, and Spain was using the dubloon and the piece of eight (or Peso) so called because it was equivalent to eight Reales (Royals). The piece of eight was also cut into pieces to make change.

Contrary to popular opinion, pirates did not bury their treasure, though it certainly makes good plot devices for books, movies and games.

Cash In and Cash Out

Pirates

• Cash In - pirates have almost unlimited legal and illegal methods of raising money
  • Piracy - of course pirates could raise money by the exercise of their time honoured profession. Goods, ships, cash and slaves could all be plundered and offloaded in friendly ports for huge profit
  • Privateering - a limited and legal form of piracy
  • Trading - pirates could trade goods between settlements as though a merchant
  • Gambling - pirate captains could enhance their coffers through gambling. Generally this is handled as a skill after plunder is split, though there will no doubt be many times when pirate captains and crew may be let loose in a town for general morale raising which will also cover gambling
• Cash Out - surprisingly, pirates could often go extended periods of time without any opportunity to spend money. Alot of this had to do with the area of operations, the type of looting, how famous they were, and what they needed to spend their money on. This also depended on how piratical they were, for some of the captains traded with other ships at sea rather than plunder them. There are even cases of captains offering to purchase or trade ships. Until the plunder was split, any spending came out of the general ship's revenue, and this was either carried out by the bosun or captain depending on the crew size, and usually only as dire circumstances required it. Any attempt to spend money when the crews morale have dropped to possible mutiny stage will trigger a morale check. If the money is to be spent carousing, then in this case run the check after the carousing results are known.
  • The Ship - generallly speaking, pirates stole almost all ship related items they required.
  • Food - generally pirates stole almost all food while at sea, though if they were anywhere near a friendly settlement, the hospitality was usually sampled rather than trying to subsist on ships rations.
  • Carousing -

Merchants

• Cash In - merchants had three ways of making money, one easy, two fraught with risk
  • Trade
  • Privateering - money can be made by hunting pirates or capturing vessels of your contries enemies. Doing this is both inherently dangerous and costly depending on your nation. It is more suited to say Spanish merchants operating along the shores of the Spanish territories capturing both rogue nations traders and pirates, or to English merchants along the coast of the Americas around major population centres where cheap crews can be suppplied by a Governor for hunting a particular pirate. This happened on a number of occassions, Stede Bonnet being captured by two such ships after they went hunting Charles Vane
  • Gambling
• Cash Out - merchans had a number of ways to lose cash in the pursuit of their business
  • Pirates - the bane of any merchants travel, encounters with pirates are fraught with danegr and uncertainty. Some pirates will do no more than rifle the inventory for objects of immediate use, such as sails, timber, fresh water and food, and at the otehr extreme, pirates will seize the ship and contents, and destroy both, throwing merchandise overboard and burning the ship to the water line
  • Bad business dealings - despite every merchants best judgement, some people just have the ability to rip off their fellow humans without the slightest tinge of regret
  • Economy collapses - despite the best intelligence, sometimes local economies collapse for various reasons, especially due to seasonal or disaster effects
  • Tithes, bribery & corruption - depending on the location, merchants may find it handy to grease the wheels of officialdom to make things run smoother or safer. Alos, if they intend to play the game by the letter of the law, the crown usually wants to take its share of the merchants hard work.
  • Mutiny - a mutiny may cost a merchant dearly, either losing his ship, or at least someof his crew who may feel they want to be paid now rather than later
  • The Elements - storms, hurricanes, reefs and sea bugs all conspire to decay ships

Naval

• Cash In - What do navies require cash for? I hear you say. After all, everything was paid for by the government. Ah, if only it was true then, cause it sure isn't now.
  • Pirate Hunting - one of the ships main duties, the capture of pirates gave a bonus to the ship's crew and officers. This is evidenced historically by the crew who receieved their money only after they heard they were due to it when it was mentioned in Capt Charles Johnson's book "A General History of Pyrates"
  • Privateering -
  • Escort Duty - a number of English & Spanish naval vessels obtained extra money by escorting merchant convoys between settlements. This did not always guarantee security, especially for the Spanish, but any merchant sailing near a naval vessel had to feel alot safer. Historically, I have no idea if the money from escort duty went only to officers or to the whole crew, so for the purpose of this game, it goes to everyone.
• Cash Out - In any town/province with a governor, the navy can replenish their supplies within reason at no cost. This is dependant on the ability of the location to supply that good. In the navies home ports any material at all is available.
  • In non friendly ports all necessary items need to be purchased, at times at inflated prices.
  • At sea for long periods, naval ships may purchase fresh food from passing merchant ships
  • Carousing
• The naval captains main problem will never be money, in or out. However, it is a bonus to get more cash, as it will improve your carousing.

Tributes and Bribery

Spanish towns were subject to another form of revenue raising by pirates. This was called the tributo de quema, and amounted to basically the same thing as the Danegild from Viking times. In exchange for an additional payment, the pirates in theory promised to leave the township itself in tact when they left, rather than raze it to the ground. Usually Spanish prisoners were sent into the surrounds to find escaped Spaniards and try to convince them to raise money to free the town, or could be sent to neighbouring larger towns to seek for the payment from the Governor. This practice dwindled into the 1700's, though certain pirates were instead blockading some American towns for money.

In 1544 Roberto Ball took a tribute of 2000 pesos for Cartegena.

In 1555 Sore (French corsair) took a tribute of 4500 pesos for Rio Hacha.

In 1555 Sore took a ransom of 30,000 pesos for the defenders of Havana he had captured.

In 1559 Cote took a ransom of 15,600 pesos for Santa Marta

In 1593 James Langton took a tribute of 2000 ducats for one of the rancherios of Margarita