If shipwrecks were more common in the past, did people shipping things have a higher expectation that their stuff wouldn’t reach its destination?

Question

Like, did they just shrug and be like “oh well, I guess we aren’t getting our pineapples this year” or was it a rare and problematic occurence?

In: Other

Answer 1

Was reading James Clavell’s “Gaijin” and a Jon negligible part of it is just “oh man I hope that important letter I sent made it and that the supplies I ordered come in. It also goes into detail about how severe tampering with mail was and the timing of information you needed to read half way across the world. Fascinating time to live in.”