Silver Gold and precious stones

[Colombiapictures]

When we think of shipwreck treasure, we often correlate it with silver, gold and precious stones.
Indeed, the shipwrecks on the bottom of the oceans contain thousands of tons of silver.
A bit less gold. Gold was about 15 to 18 times more valuable during colonial times. Does that mean there was 15 to 18 times less gold shipped?
Is there a correlation between the sinking of shipwrecks with gold cargo and shipwrecks with silver cargo?

How much gold from the new world was really shipped to the old world? How about looking a bit at statistics?

For example, between 1700 and 1850, about 1800 tons of gold were shipped from Brazil to Portugal. Officially!
How much was shipped by contraband?
What percentage ended up on the bottom of the ocean?

 

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[enrada]

Large amounts of gold shipped from the New World decreased rapidly after about 1630. By then Spain and the Catholic Church had plundered the majority of South American civilizations of their gold. One of the main reasons there is a large amount of worked gold found on these wrecks is that the owner did not have to pay the Royal Fifth on jewelry. Can you imagine anyone wearing the large gold chains with one ounce links around their neck? There has been instances where registered treasure is equal to contraband treasure found on shipwrecks. Can you say smuggling!
My guess would be that 10 to 25% ended up on the bottom of the ocean. Imagine how much mercury is laying on the bottom of the ocean as well finding it's way into the food chain as methyl mercury.
Does anyone have a copy of the business model of the Catholic Church from the 16 or 1700's?

 

[Colombiapictures]

Did not Bob Marx write a book about the gold?
The early gold leaving the New World, something like 200 tons until 1700, would be immensely valuable if it was in it's original worked shape. Unfortunately, the Spaniards melted most of it down.
A large part of the Brazilian gold was in coins, but we need more information about Portuguese Laws about the taxing of gold, so we can understand the volume and value of contraband gold. We know there was a lot of that.
There has been gold leaving South America all the time until today; But at the time of the Gold Rush of California, quite a bit of gold travelled through the Caribbean. Some over the isthmus of Panama, some came across Nicaragua, from the Pacific side.

There is still gold from Colombia, Venezuela, the Guyanas and the Amazon, travelling through the Caribbean in our days.

And there are still ships sinking in our days. https://www.amazon.com/Search-Nazi-Gold-Pt/dp/B016157VQI/?tag=treasurenet01-20

Now, what about Emeralds and diamonds?

 

[Donovan]

The best and most accurate book on gold statistics is, "Funnel Of Gold," by Mendel Peterson. Mendel was a pioneering archaeologist in the 50's who worked for the Smithsonian for many years. He was a consultant and advisor to many famous names in the underwater world and a genuine wild man. There was never a dull or uninteresting moment when Mendel was around. His encyclopedic mind and the facts and figures that flowed from it, were incredible. " History Under the sea," one of his other books, was on virtually every treasure hunters bookshelf from the 60's, on . It is still the best source for dating and identifying shipwreck artifacts.

 

[Donovan]

Mendel Peterson was a mentor to many famous treasure hunters, including: Bob Marx, Mel Fisher, Ed Link, Arthur C. Clark, Art McKee and Teddy Tucker. Mendel dove with them, caroused with them and laid the basis for their knowledge of historic shipwrecks.