🏴‍☠️How to get your pirate license

Today’s newsletter is about a topic we all love: pirates! 🏴‍☠️

To set the mood, here’s a famous sea shanty about Canadian pirates:

In popular media, we tend to think of pirates as outlaws who lived on the edge of civilization.

In reality, many of the men who “worked” as pirates in history were literally licensed by a government to commit piracy.

These men were called privateers, and they played a vital role in the naval strategies of the British, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese empires during the 1600s and 1700s.

Some historians have called this period…

The Golden Age of Privacy

Starting in the 1500s, European powers like Spain and Britain established extensive overseas empires in the Americas and Asia.

These colonies provided gold, silver, and other valuable commodities to these European powers… but they had to ship them across the world first.

The development of these global trade routes created opportunities for pirates, many of whom had received their naval education as sailors in these imperial navies.

The governments of these empires would issue documents known as “letters of marque,” which essentially licensed sailors to work as pirates against their enemies.

Here’s an American Letter of Marque signed by John Hancock:

While piracy was seen as a brutal business, it brought fame and fortune to those who succeeded as buccaneers.

British privateer Henry Morgan was so successful in his raids against the Spanish that King Charles II made him a knight upon his return to London.

You might recognize him:

Another famous privateer was Dutch admiral Piet Hier, whose piracy nearly bankrupted the Spanish empire.

The background: During the 1600s, Spain controlled valuable mines in South America that provided much of the world’s gold & silver.

The Dutch, who had been fighting the Spanish in Europe for decades, launched a war of piracy against the Spanish in the Atlantic and Caribbean. (see Piet Hier below)

In 1628, Piet Hier and his group of privateers captured the Spanish Treasure Fleet, which contained more than 11 million gold coins.

The haul funded the Dutch army for eight months of its war against the Spanish.

It also gave the Dutch West Indies Company — which had financially supported Hier’s piracy — enough money to provide its shareholders a 50% dividend on their investment that year.

The theft of the treasure fleet nearly bankrupted the Spanish government and drove down the price of silver worldwide.

Piracy in American History

During the American Revolution, the brand-new United States had a problem: Great Britain had the world’s greatest navy.

They wouldn’t win naval battles directly, so the new American government issued letters of marque to privateers who could hassle British ships on their own.

These privateers managed to capture nearly 2,000 British ships and all the supplies they carried, playing a major role in the fight for American independence.

The U.S. government last used privateers during the War of 1812..

However, the Constitution still allows Congress to grant letters of marque, and some members of Congress have called for the re-introduction of privateering in recent years.

In 2009, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas suggested that Congress issue letters of marque to help fight against Somali pirates in the Red Sea.

And in 2022, another Texas Congressman introduced a bill that would:

It’s unlikely that we’ll see the return of privateering any time soon, but it’s fun to think about at least.

Happy holidays, mateys.

ART OF THE DAY

Capture of the Pirate, Blackbeard, 1718 depicting the battle between Blackbeard the Pirate and Lieutenant Maynard in Ocracoke Bay