Now you don’t hear this little tidbit of history very much, now do we? So not only did the Virginia Company have a lottery to fund the venture to the ‘new world’, that money was also used to contract the services of privateers to transport those colonists, or pay the salaries of contract soldiers to protect those colonists. The lottery concept seemed to be an attractive method of financing this stuff back then, as we can see by the lotto ticket for the Revolutionary War below.
So let’s take this a step further. Could a modern day lottery be used by countries to fund their wars? How about an Afghan War Lotto. We could call it Super Pashtun Daily Doubles. lol And if you look at the lotteries going on in the various U.S. States and countries, you can see that the potential for raising some serious cash is there. Tack on the advent of the internet, and wow.
Better yet, in countries that are just starting out or are just scrambling to gain stability and peace, imagine a world wide lottery system for them, with the expressed interest of raising an army or funding equipment and infrastructure for their country?
The lottery, like privateering, should be looked at again with a modern day lens for warfare. Especially if the world wide economies continue to have problems, or the dollar decreases in value, or whatever financial calamity that could severely limit war funding. Just because the economy sucks, doesn’t mean Al Qaeda or Somali Pirates take vacations.
Which takes me to my next point. The enemies we are fighting these days, are already using extremely innovative means to finance their wars and maintain their good deals. From piracy, to drugs, to kidnapping, or whatever criminal venture. The Somalis have figured out an excellent business model through modern day piracy, and even put together a stock exchange for it. Drug cartels make millions of dollars in their industry, and so much so that they finance entire armies to protect their business. Groups like Al Qaeda and the Taliban use all these methods to get money, and they also throw in extortion or protection rackets, along with seeking donations from buddies all over the world.
Meanwhile, large nation states, like the U.S., are not making any money off of their wars against these folks , and the use of such large conventional forces with all of their modern fancy equipment and tanks and boats etc. etc., costs a ton of money. What happens when there isn’t any more money to continue the fight against this financially resilient enemy? In simpler terms, the enemies we are fighting really don’t have a money problem, but large countries with ultra expensive war machines certainly can have money problems, and do. I guess that is why I keep bringing up these cheaper means of warfare, or in other words, innovative ways to introduce private industry to the war in order to make it more cost effective. With that said, I will continue to look for the good stuff out there. –Matt
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1776 Lottery ticket issued by the Continental Congress to finance the Revolutionary War.
Early America Lotteries, 1612-1900 (Wikipedia)
An English lottery, authorized by King James I in 1612, granted the Virginia Company of London the right to raise money to help establish settlers in the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia.
Lotteries in colonial America played a significant part in the financing of both private and public ventures. It has been recorded that more than 200 lotteries were sanctioned between 1744 and 1776, and played a major role in financing roads, libraries, churches, colleges, canals, bridges, etc. In the 1740s, the foundation of Princeton and Columbia Universities was financed by lotteries, as was the University of Pennsylvania by the Academy Lottery in 1755.
During the French and Indian Wars, several colonies used lotteries to help finance fortifications and their local militia. In May 1758, the State of Massachusetts raised money with a lottery for the “Expedition against Canada.”
Benjamin Franklin organized a lottery to raise money to purchase cannon for the defense of Philadelphia. Several of these lotteries offered prizes in the form of “Pieces of Eight.” George Washington’s Mountain Road Lottery in 1768 was unsuccessful. However, these rare lottery tickets bearing George Washington’s signature have become collectors’ items which sold for about $15,000 in 2007. Later, in 1769, Washington was a manager for Col. Bernard Moore’s “Slave Lottery”, which advertised land and slaves as prizes in the Virginia Gazette.