What we think of as “money” is actually currency, or an agreed-upon representation of value, such as an amount of a commodity, usually gold. Wealth is the value of the goods one owned. In the times before currency, your wealth was displayed in your household. Items of value included religious icons in gold, silver, and precious gems, engraved and gem-encrusted boxes, carved altar-pieces for household chapels, illuminated manuscripts with embossed and jeweled covers, woven tapestries, gold and silver plates, golden goblets, Venetian glass objects, and of course, all manner of jewelry for men and women. The jewelry was not just necklaces and rings, but rope of pearls, heavy ornamental golden chains (worn by men mostly, but also by women) portrait miniatures with jeweled backs, ornamental jeweled swords and daggers, crowns and tiaras, bracelets, earrings, shoe buckles, ornamental hair combs, jeweled hair nets, brooches, and the list goes on. These were all set in silver or gold and bejeweled. This was in addition to a collection of gold and silver coins. All of this wealth was worn, used, and displayed. In the event of financial need, most items could be sold, traded, or used to dispatch a debt. Many financial transactions included the trade of goods such as these alongside gold or silver currency and other property such as serfs, castles, horses, cows or other livestock. All of these items (with the exception of the castles and land) are also transportable. In the event of attack, items could be loaded into chests and carts and transported away.

From the new world colonies, Spain in particular, established their own minting facilities in order to convert the Aztec, Incan, and Mayan gold into more usable gold coins and bars. Each mint had its own stamp, and today when Spanish coins and bars are recovered from shipwrecks, for instance, it is known where in the Spanish empire the coins came from, and where the ship was loaded. Jewels, such as emeralds were transported loose or in a setting that the natives had fashioned for gem. The British and French colonies in North America did not have the rich mines of gold found in the Spanish colonies. Instead, tobacco was the most valuable commodity transported from the North American colonies, followed closely by furs. Tobacco, once it had been dried and cured was baked and shipped to England. Furs were baled and shipped to England, France, and Holland (The Netherlands). One of the commodities that the English realized could give them an edge over Spain was the quality of old-growth trees in North America. 100 of these trees made a British Navy ship-of-the-line, the equivalent to a modern-day aircraft carrier in the ability to project power. In this way, the trees of North America gave Britain the power to control the seas, plunder the Spanish treasure galleons, and grow their empire. Paper currency was not needed in the early colonial period, and like the Spanish, once currency was needed, the British colonies had their own mints to print the currency. Wealth was carried as commodities across the ocean.

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