One of the books which many people have heard about or read one version or another is Robinson Crusoe. The book was originally written by Daniel Dafoe in the 1700’s and the book was soon as popular as the Harry Potter series with the book going into multiple printing. Ever since then, people have been wondering who was the book about, how did Dafoe create the great descriptive passages? In that end a book called In Search of Robinson Crusoe written by Tim Severin published by Basic Books, New York, 2002 in which Mr. Serverin goes to Latin and South America to discover which island or place  Mr. Dafoe used for the island. In Mr. Serverin’s opinion and many others, the island was a composite or a group for not all the natural elements in Robinson Crusoe are on one island.

There are many stories and Mr. Serverin’s research into this book as well as his other In Search of books are well worth reading. In relationship to the theme of Dividends there is a story about a group of natives off the coast between the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua who generally have a subsistence life of fishing and killing animals from the rain forest. But every once in a while some money comes into the tribe and it was (or still could be) from the drug trade. The cocaine comes from Columbia and travels toward the United States. Every once in a while, the boats or planes have to offload their cargoes into the sea to avoid being captured. The native group (the Miskito Indians) retrieve the load and sell it to the drug traders or receive a finder’s fee. For generations, the Spanish mined gold and silver in Mexico and Peru and sent it to Spain. As the country grew richer and was the richest country in Europe, other countries were jealous and gave permission to pirates (had a letter from the government saying they were on official business, but the reality was the backers and crew split up the proceeds) to rob the Spanish boats. The navy of the Spanish gave passage to most of the boats, but other countries such as Britian claimed various islands in the Caribbean so the boats would have to pass British interests. The pirate trade similar to all shipping once in a while would run aground and if the ship was abandoned then its store house was for anyone to claim. Hundreds of years later, rather than gold and silver, the cargo is drugs. It is interesting to read what happens when the cargo is sold. Many of the men would go into town and get drunk and visit the prostitutes, although some would buy things for their boats; many of the women would buy things for their families and gold necklaces for their children (which can always be sold later or a savings account).

Linking to dividend paying stocks, it is a wonderful adventure to read books such as In Search of because of the question the the who? What? When? How? of the books you may have read as a youngster. The adventure is worthwhile. In your investing, it is better to seek the boring and the known way or profitable companies which pay a dividend. Next year, your research is are they still profitable to pay their dividend and then you can follow or read the next adventure story.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.