Not Quite Western Union

By Daniel Kretschmer

If you want to send money fast Western Union is the way to go. Quick cash, emergency funds, expedient transfer, in a heartbeat. Nowadays I can move monies from my savings to my checking with the click of a mouse whenever I so desire. My paycheck gets direct deposited, my dealership credit company automatically withdraws my monthly payment, I drive this car around and buy gas with my credit card on the way to buy groceries in the same fashion. All this without ever seeing a cold hard penny. Theoretically there are some four trillion dollars in the world today, much of which has never ever been printed.

No money down, no payments till June, 0% APR for the first six months. Good credit, bad credit, no credit, your job is your credit. Everything is gearing consumers to finance. Swipe a card: "set it and forget it!" Put it on charge and you won't have to worry about it, just a little bit at a time once a month for an extended period for a small fee. In these times of woe, you can be safely assured little Johnny and Mary will have a visit from Santa this year, for 15% APR. What a world!

Well for good or bad it wasn't always like this. First take a look at our dear old founding fathers in our dear old city of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia. This is when it really started to change. This city was the hub of everything political, economical, and social at one point, with dear old Benny Franklin spearheading the way to a better future by making such things possible as leasing a commercial property or buying fire insurance. Yes the days where you had to be upper crust elitists to run a business were over. The economy was making a turn for the better.

Whoa! Time out! [tires screeching]. Lets go back even further. How did commerce work before all this change? Well I'm not going to get into all the very exciting details about the history of economics (hey crack open a book), But I will tell you money was definitely different. Think 1492. Columbus found the new world full of glittering prizes beyond the sovereignty's imagination. Greed was as much a virtue back then as it is now and the relentless quest to obtain this wealth began. The Caribbean proved to be chock full of gold and coins, and around the 16th and 17th centuries the Spanish crown charged mariners to convoy this wealth back to the homeland via a certain route. Thus we have the Spanish Main. Treasure Galleons by the gross were sent on a perilous year long journey braving storms, disease, mutiny, pirates, and the ever so unforgiving sea to bring this cash back. Not quite money in a flash, huh?

Many a sea-faring adventurer met his demise on this treasure quest. It's comforting to know that with all the changes in the world over the centuries that human nature is the same wonderful concept we all know and love, always has been, and always will. People will do anything for money and gladly lay down their lives in the quest for it. Think of how many storms these convoys confronted. I know of one story of the Silver Shoals somewhere near the Philippines where sixteen Spanish galleons went down in a storm. Sixteen. All those men, and all that gold. And you know what the amazing part of it is? They're still there. Every last one of them. A time capsule just waiting on its nautical graveyard.

I've heard of a couple different estimates but they go so far as to say that there is approximately one trillion dollars worth of gold, silver, and valuables still on the ocean floor. Amazing. I mean, this is not just a kid's bedtime story of pirates and gold and sunken treasure, this is real shit. This really happened, and there are so many ships unaccounted for. Its not just the money, but the history that is so valuable. Think of these people at the bottom of the sea, think of how just a couple hundred years ago they dressed, they talked, their passions, their humanity. Think of what they tried to do, but fate wouldn't allow.

I would love to run an expedition to find one of these ships. There are legal ways to prove that a certain ship's sovereign nation "abandoned" it. If not for instance, the Spanish crown today may lay claim to a certain galleon on grounds that it is still in fact Spanish, and the gold was in fact headed for Spain. Salvers put a bad taste in people's mouths, especially historians and the such who obviously want this piece of "priceless" history preserved and not just plundered and ruined just for the treasure and sold off to the highest bidder. Many salvers surface old ships way too quickly causing the wood to oxidize and artifacts to spill over. To them helmets and spoons and stoves are worthless. History is just ruined. I don't think Cortez would be too happy. It's enough to make these captains of cash turn in their watery graves.

No I would do it right. I would spend months or years doing my homework. Finding which ships went missing and where. For example shores that have coins and artifacts wash up are a good clue. Finding these ships can and does happen. Of course money begets money, and with moths flying out of my wallet when I open it up, I would need to tap some kind of funds, or the curiosity of a trusting rich uncle. And with all this lottery hubbub when we talked about what to do with over 100 million dollars I said just this: sunken treasure is waiting for me. The others laughed and said they knew who the first to spend all his money would be. I said for one: life is short, be adventurous (I think this would be quite an adventure- searching for knowledge and lost pirate's gold!) and two: I'm only human and I wouldn't mind making more money. So when I turn my several millions into several billions I'll be laughing all the way to relax on the Caribbean Islands that made me so rich. But its not all about the money, it really isn't. Imagine being so close to all that history. To one man's sunken ill-fated history. It's kind of creepy.

Some say that within 20 years we will have the technology to find and surface all of the ocean floor's lost treasures. There will be no more adventure or mystery. I believe them.

I'd better get cracking...

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