Sharing the Prize and the Value of Money

 

The following information might be better understood in conjunction with the table of English money.

 

After the value of the prize [ship] had been adjudicated by the prize court (which might take years), that value was divided and paid as below:

Shares are:

• 1/8 to the flag officer

• 3/8 to the captain (for a private vessel)

• 1/8 each to commissioned, warrant and petty officers, and

• ¼ to the crew.

 

 

The situation in the West Indies in the 1690’s, as taken from a 1691 letter to the crown from Gov. Codrington of Antigua:

 

“Pieces-of-eight, if of full weight (which not one in a hundred is) are worth 4s. 4½d., but generally are worth from 3s. 6d. to 4s. In Barbados, they pass for 5s.; in the Leeward Islands for 6s. The hardship too is the greater, since living here is much more expensive than in England. A piece-of-eight will not purchase what costs 3s. in England, and what costs half-a-crown or less in England costs a piece-of-eight here.” British Archives.