# Treasure ship found worth $1bn - why so much on one ship? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treasure-ship-found-worth-1bn-why-so-much-on-one-ship/739555 "2015-12-05T22:52:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treasure-ship-found-worth-1bn-why-so-much-on-one-ship/739555/1 "2015-12-05T22:52:59Z")
> **[Colombia says treasure-laden San Jose galleon found](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-35014600)** > > The wreck of the San Jose, a treasure-laden Spanish galleon sunk by the British 300 years ago, has been found off the Colombian city of Cartagena, President Juan Manuel Santos announces. > [@](#): > > The wreck of a Spanish ship laden with treasure that was sunk by the British more than 300 years ago has been found off the Colombian coast, says President Juan Manuel Santos. > “Great news! We have found the San Jose galleon,” the president tweeted. > The wreck was discovered near the port city of Cartagena. > It has been described as the holy grail of shipwrecks, as the ship was carrying one of the largest amounts of valuables ever to have been lost at sea. > Mr Santos said the cargo was worth at least $1bn (£662m). > The San Jose was carrying gold, silver, gems and jewellery collected in the South American colonies to be shipped to Spain’s king to help finance his war of succession against the British when it was sunk in June 1708. This seems like a huge amount to trust to one ship. I don’t know the stats, but there must have been a good chance back then of the ship being attacked or hit by a storm. If the value was so important why not split it between several ships? (Of course, it might well have been split… but I’m finding it hard to visualise say 10 ships carrying $1bn each). ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treasure-ship-found-worth-1bn-why-so-much-on-one-ship/739555/2 "2015-12-05T23:12:19Z")
According to [this wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wager%27s_Action) about the battle in which the ship was sunk… > **[Wager's Action](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wager%27s_Action)** > > Wager's Action was a naval confrontation on 8 June 1708 N.S. (28 May O.S.), between a British squadron under Charles Wager and the Spanish treasure fleet, as part of the War of the Spanish Succession. The battle ended in a British victory over the Spanish fleet. > In the spring of 1708 Charles Wager was on an expedition in the Caribbean with a squadron of four ships: > In April the squadron took in supplies on the small island of Pequeña Barú, part of the Rosario Islands, just 30 miles away from ... > [@](#): > > Nevertheless, the commander of the treasure fleet, José Fernández de Santillán, decided to sail from Portobelo to Cartagena on May 28. He couldn’t wait much longer as the hurricane season was approaching and the rest of the fleet, plus their escort under Jean Du Casse were waiting in Havana and threatened to leave without him. > > The Spanish fleet was composed of fourteen merchant ships, a hulk lightly armed and three escorting warships:[1] > > San José (64) (Capitan Santillán) > San Joaquín (64) (Capitan Villanueva) > Santa Cruz (44) (Capitan de la Rosa) > The gold and silver was concentrated on the 3 largest vessels. The San José had 7 to 11 million pesos on board, and the San Joaquin 5 million. The Santa Cruz had the rest, only a fraction of the other two ships. So: (a) Hurricane season was approaching (b) Their _real_ escort was waiting at Havana (c) This was only half of the loot. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treasure-ship-found-worth-1bn-why-so-much-on-one-ship/739555/3 "2015-12-06T10:55:38Z")
Well they haven’t actually got the loot, so they don’t know how much is there… are they trying to sell it before retrieval ??? Spain did become quite wealthy from New World silver and gold… you might think to split the most valuable loot between the 13,14 vessels… but why not ? I guess the silver and gold couldn’t go on the merchant vessels, as they might disappear in the night … a team of pirates (eg from lower rank military ?) might slip over to the ship and , long story short, steal the ship and disappear, for example… The military ships though had crew who were going to profit from their numerous trips backward and forward, they became independtly wealth from it… Also, with the risk of piracy (Britannia using pirates as well as official navy…), if then news got out that Spain had puts its silver and gold on almost totally unarmed merchant ships… then the merchant ships would become targets. So they kept the silver and gold on the naval ships, and thus protected the merchant ships… no sense having everyone killed… The wreck is identified by the military cannon on it. I don’t think the dolphin insignia on the cannons is unique to the ship, but it does say its a naval ship of the correct era. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treasure-ship-found-worth-1bn-why-so-much-on-one-ship/739555/4 "2015-12-06T12:45:50Z")
Are they valuing the stuff today as simple bullion, or as rare antiquities? How much was that worth back then? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treasure-ship-found-worth-1bn-why-so-much-on-one-ship/739555/5 "2015-12-06T13:59:14Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > Spain did become quite wealthy from New World silver and gold… Just a brief bugaboo of mine. Spain became[impoverished because of new world silver and gold](http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/spain-under-phillip-ii/the-economic-problems-of-spain/). The hazards of importing money instead of wealth. Sorry. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treasure-ship-found-worth-1bn-why-so-much-on-one-ship/739555/6 "2015-12-06T15:50:20Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Just a brief bugaboo of mine. Spain became[impoverished because of new world silver and gold](http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/spain-under-phillip-ii/the-economic-problems-of-spain/). > > The hazards of importing money instead of wealth. > > Sorry. Carry on. Thank you for the informative cite. I think you are probably right, but I hope you will consider providing another cite because the one linked does not offer the opinion that bullion \*caused \*Spain’s impoverishment. See especially the last paragraph. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treasure-ship-found-worth-1bn-why-so-much-on-one-ship/739555/7 "2015-12-06T22:49:34Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > The hazards of importing money instead of wealth. Nitpick: Money is a subset of wealth. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treasure-ship-found-worth-1bn-why-so-much-on-one-ship/739555/8 "2015-12-06T23:17:23Z")
Nay, my friend. Money is a system of accounting for wealth. Wealth is goods and services and such. My iPhone here is wealth. The $20 bill in my wallet is merely a means of accounting for potential, future wealth. What the Spanish did was import money - some gold but primarily a LOT of silver - and cause inflation that affected an entire continent. More money chasing the same amount of goods and services leads to high levels of inflation and the devaluation of money. Money is lubrication for the creation and increase of wealth. By itself it has no value at all. Some cites: [Start with our beloved Cecil Adams.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/611/what-happened-to-all-the-gold-spain-got-from-the-new-world) [The Price Revolution - Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution) [Spain During the Price Revolution - PDF](http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/ghgonline/units/4/documents/Lynch1.pdf)