A Pirate’s Life for Me

You saw Pirates of the Caribbean and thought, “I want to be Captain Jack Sparrow.” You read Treasure Island as a kid and thought you could outsmart Long John Silver. Mostly, you just want to find buried treasure marked on a map by a big X. Or maybe what you really want is to bury the treasure and make one of those cool maps.

Ah, but you aren’t bloodthirsty enough to join a pirate crew? Or are you worried you’d have to walk the plank or end up marooned with a pistol and a single bullet?

Or maybe (gasp!) none of this has any appeal to you at all.

In any event, everything you know about Pirates is wrong, so sorry, you couldn’t have had that life anyway.

The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates is one of those marvelous books that not only will you enjoy reading (regardless of whether you care about pirates), but when you are looking for a fabulous gift for someone who reads books, it is a surefire hit.

Peter Leeson (the author) is obsessed with Pirates and Economics, and the book is a perfect marriage of the two. I was recently asked what book would be the best for teaching economic intuition to a home-schooled high school student. Hands down, this book should be at the top of the list.

What do we learn? Pirates were a much more organized society than they at first seem to be. They have the reputation of being an anarchic, lawless bunch of sadistic scum of the earth. But, for example, did you know that before they set off on a voyage, they would all sign a contract specifying each individual’s voting rights, rules and responsibilities, and share of profits?

These Pirate Constitutions are amazing documents. The Captains really were elected. There was a quartermaster whose job was to curtail the authority of the captain. The crews could depose a captain. There was a rudimentary health insurance program; the size of the payment for a loss of limb or life is well set out in the constitution.

In what is perhaps the most surprising revelation in the book, if you compare life on a pirate ship to life on a legal merchant vessel, there isn’t much doubt in which place you have more rights. Merchant ships of the day were run as complete totalitarian dictatorships. The captain’s word was the Law. If the Captain wanted to abuse you, there was nothing stopping him from doing so. And merchant captains were very happy to abuse you. As it turns out, one of the biggest source of pirates was the crew of merchant vessels who realized life on a pirate ship was much better.

So, what about all the evil torturing? Pirates spent a lot of time cultivating a reputation as being brutal sadists. Why? Well, suppose you are a pirate and you want to steal the cargo off another ship. The worst thing for you is if the other ship decides to fight to the death. So, to convince the other ship to surrender, you cultivate the reputation of being unmerciful to anyone who fights with you. Then surrender is much more likely. Lives are saved, the cargo is unharmed. Everyone wins. Well, everyone except the owner of the ship the pirates just stole, but the owner was off in some nice country house, so nobody really cared about him.

Something similar happens with pirate conscription. Suppose you decide it is in your best interest to join up with a pirate ship. The danger is if you get caught, you will be hung, which is not a painless way to die. So, you make it known that you were kidnapped by pirates and forced into service. Then if you get caught, people feel bad for you and you walk away free and clear. It was in the pirates’ interest to pretend that everyone was forced into service.

And so on. This book is a masterpiece of showing what happens when an economist walks into a literature. The economist just sees things differently. By constantly asking, “Why is this action in the interest of the person doing it?” you can uncover all sorts of interesting things.

But, truth be told, the real reason you want to read this book is not just all the economic insights into pirates. It is because pirates are cool. And a well-written book with lots of pirate stories? Yeah, you really want to grab a bottle of rum and read this.

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