I just spent way too long reading this as a result: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buried_treasure
Comment on Makes sense
Dasus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yea pirates burying treasure is largely a myth imo
Like yeah there’s documented instances, but it wasn’t common practice.
kibiz0r@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 3 weeks ago
Captain Kidd did claim he buried treasure, but he did it as a stalling tactic to delay his inevitable hanging. There are no confirmed cases of pirates burying their treasure.
The myth largely sprung up from the novel Treasure Island. Which birth a ton of adventure tropes.
Hugin@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I know of one instance. Pirate plundered a ship ruining a false flag. It was actually from a nation he was friendly with. Buried the treasurer in the hope they wouldn’t find out.
MotoAsh@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
There has always been better ways to launder money than simply sitting on it.
sidelove@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I was under the impression it was just storage under-the-mattress style. No one’s bringing a treasure chest to buy eggs.
TheWordBotcher@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Pippi Longstocking would like a word…
Sc00ter@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
This was my thought as well. You obviously aren’t using a bank, and you probably dont trust enough people to keep that on your ship. Not to mention if your ship goes down and you survive, it sure would be nice to get your treasure back. Hence the maps with “tricks.” Theyre only supposed to be Hints for the person know already knows where it is
Dasus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I don’t think pirates really worried about laundering any booty. What for? They weren’t worried about the IRS, nor would people generally have qualms about where someone’s gold/silverm/wares might have come from, methinks.
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If you got a pile of gold, someone somewhere will want to know where it came from. A powerful somebody who will be looking for any excuse to confiscate it. For the public good of course!
Dasus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If you got a pile of gold, you have something of inherent value, which you could, for instance melt down into bars.
If you have something worth a lot of money, you’ll always find someone to buy it.
You’re really thinking more like someone having stolen the Mona-Lisa in the 21st century than pirates plundering raw wares and possibly some valuables.
Hell a bit more than a hundred years ago a servant could rather easily, if they wanted, just steal all the jewelry and valuables of their mistress and if they actually went further than like 100 miles from where they stole them, the chances of getting caught would be quite small. Or especially if they were actually a professional thief and knew a fence.
But pirated didn’t need to worry about any of that.
They’d just sail into a pirate haven, basically proto-anarchist societies, and they weren’t in short supply either.
MotoAsh@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
They weren’t worried about the tax man, but only a fool would believe there were zero authorities that would question someone suddenly coming upon wealth.
It’s not paying taxes but producing plausibility that laundering provides.
Dasus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And what sort of a fool would live under some state’s power while actively practicing piracy?
You’re just gonna get the crew to drop you off after four to see your wife and kids? Take the weekend off, park the sloop harbor?
Pirates didn’t participate in high society. Or any state-sponsored society for that matter. They had their own societies.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_haven
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Piracy
ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 3 weeks ago
Gold was absolutely taxed and controlled In those days. Just because modern taxation didn’t exist, it didn’t mean that people didn’t ask ‘hey where did you get the money from?’
There have been cases as far back as Ancient Egypt where robbers were caught because they suddenly had access to large amounts of money they wouldn’t have had otherwise. I think it involved a group of people who robbed a Pharoah’s tomb. It has been decades since I read about it so I could be off.
Dasus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
By whom, exactly? The states too weak to invade and take control of pirate havens?
“fuck off, that’s where”
Uuu so challenging this “monkey laundering” in the 1700’s.
Bank notes didn’t practically exist. Money was actually gold or silver. Moneys laundering as a concept is from the 1920’s from mafia who lived under a states rule.
I imagine that England sending letters to pirated saying “hey guys we need you to pay your taxes and also please come back to England so we can hang you for piracy” would’ve gotten similar responses as what the pirates over at pirate-bay in the modern world gave to a similar power, only in modern parliance.
Image