According to Portuguese legislation, our country cannot engage in treasure hunting. Also, being a State Party to the Unesco Convention, the county has to enforce it.
As for gold found in an archaeological site, it would be treated in the same way as a piece of pottery or a shard of ceramic: it cannot be auctioned, sold or traded.~
In my opinion, there is a value that one can attach to a cannon or a silver ingot. That value will add to the National Treasure.
Anyhow, if I find my target in the next years (one that was lost with c. 22 tons of silver and gold) I will give you a more pratical answer, since I will have to deal with the issue.
Old thread, fascinating opening although not so interesting remainder of the thread with bickering about what archaeologists want.
Yes. Debts and purchasing goods tends to suck up your gold pretty fast.
The Vatican may have indirectly ended up with the gold, but it would have come from the government and highfalutins who also got to wet their beaks. But for the most part, Europeans in the New World were there in service of the monarchy. Therefore, everything collected, loaded and shipped back to Europe was the property of the king. This would have been the case until general trade was established with colonies, and even then the "freest" economic system was mercantilism. That meant that you had to secure permission from the government to engage in trade, but you had a significant amount of control over how you did it, provided you paid all the fees, taxes, bribes, payoffs, etc.
A good source in the English language about the gold from Brazil is the historian C.R Boxer. He wrote many books.
This is great. Thank you for sharing both of these books. I appreciate it.
The attached file should get you started. There are a few sources mentioned.
Here is also "The golden Age of Brazil" in pdf form.
The files did not upload. What did I do wrong?
Might edit your original post and try again?
