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Friday, April 10, 2009

Economy "Pirational Choice"

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Fri, Apr 10, 2009 at 9:45 AM

Somali pirates are at it again and so are economists, explaining the free-market pressures that make efficient pirates:

"Pirate governance created sufficient order and co-operation to make pirates one of the most sophisticated and successful criminal organisations in history," writes Leeson. "To effectively organise their banditry, pirates required mechanisms to prevent internal predation, minimise crew conflict, and maximise piratical profit."

Pirates, he argues, invented a system of checks and balances "to constrain captain predation", and devised democratic constitutions to "create law and order" among themselves. "Remarkably," points out Leeson, "pirates adopted both of these institutions before the United States or England."

These pirate practices of the past now read like a "best practices" primer on economics and finance. Successful buccaneers learned how to manage organisational growth: "Many pirate crews were too large to fit in one ship. In this case, they formed pirate squadrons ... Multiple pirate ships often joined for concerted plundering expeditions. The resulting pirate fleets could be massive."

The rest is in the Guardian.

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Many pirates had fled the British Navy whose articles were read out to seamen including the penalties of death for striking an officer.

When they formed pirate bands, they wrote their own constitutions, with far more democratic and humane provisions, including provisions for disability insurance, limits on executive compensation (the pirate leader only got a defined multiple of what the ordinary pirate got), and they were, or course, openly multiracial.

Thus not only is there honor among thieves there was democracy and equal rights, too. Far more democracy and equal rights than in any nation as of say, 1650, or 1700.

Posted by PC on April 10, 2009 at 10:05 AM

That's a romantic notion, and makes me want to run out the liquor store for some rum. But what you've got off the horn of Africa is a well organized gang of thugs.

Posted by Joe M on April 10, 2009 at 10:23 AM

What century is this?

Posted by PA Native on April 10, 2009 at 10:33 AM

Somebody had better start a rock band called The Somali Pirates so I'm not forced to.

Posted by Asa on April 10, 2009 at 10:36 AM

This is just the FSM's attempt at dealing with global warming.

Posted by Will in Seattle on April 10, 2009 at 11:03 AM

Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe gives a good taste of pirate life and governance, with some time travel mixed in.

Posted by Jude Fawley on April 10, 2009 at 11:11 AM

Two items
Foist: A very interesting read on who pirates were (doing) and where they came from back in the 17- and 1800's: Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition, by B.R. Burg, a rather thorough little study.

2nd: Interesting how alleged "anarchy" evolved directly into democratic power-sharing among an otherwise "lawless" group of people. Hmm.

Jus' sayin'...

Posted by treacle on April 10, 2009 at 12:32 PM

This discussion makes me think how, in the City of God, St. Augustine tells the story of a pirate captured by Alexander the Great, who asked him “how dare he molest the sea”. “How dare you molest the whole world” the pirate replied. “Because I do it with a little ship only, I am called a thief; you, doing it with a great navy, are called an emperor”.
Noam Chomsky mentioned this in his work.

Posted by Julian in Seattle on April 10, 2009 at 12:37 PM