Discovered by Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage to America, the Cayman Islands were the definitive center of pirate activity in the Caribbean Sea, during the seventeenth century. Located northwest of Jamaica, between Cuba and Honduras, uninhabited and without active control by the Spanish crown, they quickly became an ideal sanctuary for the development of piracy.
The famous British buccaneer Francis Drake gave the islands their current name and frequently used them as a base to attack Spanish galleons carrying precious metals to Europe.
Today, this nation of fifty thousand people has become the world's fifth largest financial center, after London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. There are about five-hundred banking institutions operating on the island and a hundred thousand registered companies. In addition, the large sum of 2.1 trillion dollars, enough money to satisfy the health and nutrition needs of the entire planet, is deposited within its jurisdiction.
Surprising parallels can be drawn between the Cayman Islands of old times and its current status: pirates and executives doing as they have always done, looking for a good place to hide their treasures.
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