# golden age of Piracy money spending power



## lwhitehead (Jan 23, 2019)

I need to know the spending power of Pirate Money in the golden age of Piracy, Spanish coins such as Reales, Doubloons worth 32 Reales each/ 100 later

English Money, Dutch Money and French Money of this time period as well.


LW


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## Guard Dog (Jan 23, 2019)

Dunno, but you may wanna start here:

The Filthy Finances of Pirates in the Golden Age of Piracy

( Btw, I found that site by plugging the title of your post into Google. )



G.D.


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## CyberWar (Jan 24, 2019)

According to this tool, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/#, 1 British pound in 1670 would be worth 113 British pounds today, the equivalent of two weeks salary for a skilled worker. The tool also illustrates how much commodities common back in the day you could buy for a given sum.

For context, a record from the days of Great Fire of London in 1666 mentions that teamsters would charge wealthy Londoners exorbitant sums of up to 40 pounds for evacuating their possessions from the burning city, a small fortune even by modern standards. Yet another contemporary source pertaining directly to the Golden Age of Piracy (A. Exquemelin's "_History of the Buccaneers of America_") states that one could buy a cow for 2 Spanish pieces of eight, mentioned in the context of the fortunes squandered on gambling and prostitution by the pirates, some of whom would spend 500 or more pieces of eight in a single night of revelry.

http://www.pierre-marteau.com/currency/converter.html is another useful tool for period inter-currency conversion.


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## Myk3y (Jan 25, 2019)

CyberWar said:


> According to this tool, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/#, 1 British pound in 1670 would be worth 113 British pounds today, the equivalent of two weeks salary for a skilled worker. The tool also illustrates how much commodities common back in the day you could buy for a given sum.
> 
> For context, a record from the days of Great Fire of London in 1666 mentions that *teamsters would charge wealthy Londoners exorbitant sums of up to 40 pounds for evacuating their possessions from the burning city, a small fortune even by modern standards. *Yet another contemporary source pertaining directly to the Golden Age of Piracy (A. Exquemelin's "_History of the Buccaneers of America_") states that one could buy a cow for 2 Spanish pieces of eight, mentioned in the context of the fortunes squandered on gambling and prostitution by the pirates, some of whom would spend 500 or more pieces of eight in a single night of revelry.
> 
> http://www.pierre-marteau.com/currency/converter.html is another useful tool for period inter-currency conversion.



As someone in the throes of 'evacuating' themselves from the third-world back to civilisation, the blood-letting of teamsters is very much alive and well!

I don't understand how the same four pallets of boxes that cost me $790 to ship here, costs $4700 to ship in the reverse direction, with the same shipping company.


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## Guard Dog (Jan 29, 2019)

Myk3y said:


> As someone in the throes of 'evacuating' themselves from the third-world back to civilisation, the blood-letting of teamsters is very much alive and well!
> 
> I don't understand how the same four pallets of boxes that cost me $790 to ship here, costs $4700 to ship in the reverse direction, with the same shipping company.



The answer seems pretty obvious to me: The price of admission to 'civilization' is always higher than the cost of leaving it behind.

( If they can deter you from coming back, they can keep ya from tellin' anyone how much civilization actually sucks, and is an unnecessary waste of effort and resources. )


G.D.


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## Ralph Rotten (Jan 29, 2019)

Heh; in the movie IN TIME, they kept the riff-raff out of the rich parts of the country by charging big tolls at each new county. Since their currency was life, few people wanted to pay those fees.
Sorry, I digress.


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