3. Piracy Part 2 - Violence For Profit

This is the third part of the series violence for profit and the second on piracy. The podcast is available here or you can see the podcast here: http://historyontherun.libsyn.com/webpage

You’ve all probably heard of Captain Kidd sometime in your life. However, you probably don’t know all that much about him. Think for a second. Do you know which oceans he plundered? Can you tell me anything of his character? Probably not. He’s one of the pirates that everyone has heard of, but nobody knows anything about. So, who was Captain Kidd. Well, we know he was born in Scotland in 1654 and he had a hard life which drove him to sea for a living and over the next two decades of his life he learned his trade. In February 1689 at the age of 35 he was a part of the crew of the privateer ship the Sainte Rose, a French ship. Now, operating with a French ship wasn’t too bad for Kidd and the other British sailors, but when the news broke about how Britain was now at war with France they were operating in the middle of any enemy ship! Kidd and the others pleaded fealty to the mostly French crew, but when they attacked the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean Kidd and the other British sailors doubled back to the boat, overpowered the crew, and returned as champions to a British port. The governor let Kidd keep the ship and he named it the Blessed William. Unfortunately, Kidd was double-crossed by a portion of the crew and was left stranded on the island of Antigua. After a year he was able to capture a ship and return to sea where he pursued the men who left him stranded. He named the ship Antigua after the island he had been marooned on. That led him to New York where he became a member of the gentry there and engaged in trade, privateering ventures, and was a father of two. Kidd desperately wanted to become a captain in the British Navy, but he did not have the pedigree or money to make it happen. He became involved with several businessmen who were putting together a privateering expedition along the West African Coast.

This is where things began to unravel. Kidd’s crew was the most desperate of crews. To be someone who would want to go to sea in such abysmal conditions took a special type of desperation. To get men to join the royal navy they would often use press gangs who would get you drunk and let you wake up aboard one of Her Majesty’s ships. This added to the fact that a third of his crew had died of a sickness after just starting caused some last minute recruiting of the dregs. These men wanted money and after 18 straight months of no rich targets they were not happy with their Captain.

Kidd had decided to go after targets along the West African Coast and to swing through the Indian Ocean looking for targets. His hope was to find pirates operating on this seaway where there were many plump Indian and Arab targets to choose from. Unfortunately, after no good legal targets to choose from Kidd picked one of the not-so-legal targets. He attacked an Indian vessel (really British) and took the cargo. It was worth about 6000 in today’s dollars. On his way back his ship fell apart, half of his crew deserted, and they had taken some of the goods, so he used the Indian vessel to travel back to the Caribbean. Lamentably, he found that he was now a wanted pirate when he got back, and all of his financial backers, including Richard Coote the governor of New York, had turned against poor Captain Kidd. When Kidd returned he was tried publicly and was found guilty of piracy. It was quite a sensation on the streets and the name of captain Kidd and piracy in general was discussed quite a lot in upper circles who debated the trial of the would be aristocrat gone bad. Kidd was led to the scaffold as he shouted he was innocent and then hung in front of a cheering crowd. His body would be put in a cage and posted on the banks of the River Thames. The bulk of Kidd’s loot would go towards building a hospital for injured sailors in London.

Kidd was not a successful pirate. I simply chose to tell his story because it is an interesting yet little known tale. He was a victim of the changing times that would come, in twenty years to wipe out the Golden Age of Pirates. Peace was bad for the business of privateers and the new northern European powers tried to destroy the monster they had created over the past 100 years. While many privateers switched careers to the shipping industry, other, more bloodthirsty men, went the way of the pirate. The royal navies suddenly had hundreds of men who sailed under their own flag and were crazy for blood, gold, and loot. They were unlike the semi-aristocratic men like Morgan and Kidd. They were the common sailor who were the more violent types and could not simply switch livelihoods that easily. The Royal navies were the most active during the Golden Age and slowly brought it to a close.
So, let us again switch scenery. Piracy was coming to an end in much of the Western Oceans, but I have not yet talked about the East. The first recorded incidence of piracy in China occurred in AD 589, but despite its lack of acknowledgment in the historical record it is likely that piracy was alive and well in the South China Sea well before that. When a dynasty was powerful in China the emperor would have the strength to reign in piratical activities. During times of unrest or weakness the pirates would basically create their own fiefdoms and attack any ships that went their way. Let me read a section from Angus Konstam’s book: Piracy: The Complete History to show something:

“In fact, the business of piracy was different in China from anywhere else in the world. For a start, piracy was highly organized. Rather than operating in individual ships or even small groups, pirates congregated into fleets. Instead of occupying small havens, Chinese pirates tended to control large sections of the coast…However, for the most part these Chinese pirate confederations or empires kept well away from politics, and simply ruled their pirate fiefdoms as independent states.”

These pirates operated basically up until the Europeans arrived and were driven out, but during their heyday they ruled the water. In 1661 Koxinga attacked the island of Formosa which was under Dutch control with 400 ships and 25,000 pirates. Koxinga was the son of Cheng Chi-Lung, another pirate king who crossed the Manchu or Qing Dynasty and both he and his son payed the price and were eventually defeated. After the fall of Koxinga’s pirate empire at the end of the 17^th century in 1681 the pirates would be fragmented for 100 years until Cheng Yih who would create an empire just as large. Cheng was born in Vietnam and his family has been in the piracy business for generations. Cheng Yih expanded his operations to the North in Kwangtung and would bully other pirates to follow his flag. By 1805 Cheng Yih had created a pirate league that dominated the South China Sea. Cheng divided up his forces into six fleets. A black, red, white, blue, yellow, and green fleet sailed the South Sea. Each of these fleets would dominate their area, control the seas, make ships pay to get through, and dominate trades like the Opium trade which had thousands of Chinese addicts. Cheng Yih personally controlled the largest of these fleets which had 600 ships and 30,000 pirates under his control, and, if all the fleets were to be merged together Cheng Yih could muster a force of 150,000 pirates and 1,200 ships which is the largest pirate fleet ever. If anyone threated Cheng’s Empire he could easily bring together all the fleets and beat off the Europeans or any attempt by the Imperial government to restrict him, which they didn’t really want to.

Imagine that. 150,000 pirates……that is something that you can’t even begin to imagine. Imagine being a European sailor, knowing that you will be sailing through waters where 150,000 pirates are spread out between you and where you want to go? Imagine that were you today. Would you go? Would you invest in a boat that might go there? You know the largest you might get in a pirate fleet in 2,000 or so pirates, but in the East we have forces of 150,000. He could even defeat European forces such as in 1804 where he beat a Portuguese fleet that was sent out to beat him.
Tragically Cheng Yih’s career took a tragic end when he died during a voyage in 1807. His wife Cheng Shi took over his massive Empire as he had no sons. However, Cheng Shi would not have much time at the helm as her Empire began to crumble. The different fleets began to fight each other, the British began to bring in more ships and fight piracy, and Imperial forces began to try to bring the opium trade under control. In 1810, after three years of rule, she accepted an Imperial offer of amnesty and retired to control a sector of the opium trade. The British would begin to dominate the Chinese market and Chinese politics and they began by defeating piracy and making the waters safe for free trade. The last major force was defeated at the Red River Delta where 1,800 pirates and 58 ships were destroyed by the British Navy as it swept down the Chinese coast.

Piracy has not died. Today it is still a major threat to world shipping, but it is nothing like what it was. There are no massive armies that terrorize Europe, no forces of 150,000, and nothing that can challenge the modern navies. For the most part these modern pirates operate in small groups in speed boats that cruise the waters around Somalia and the area around the Philippines and Indonesia where there is a lot of boats and a lot of nooks and crannies for pirates to hide in. Everyone remembers when the Somalian pirates took Richard Phillips, an American captain of the Maersk Alabama was taken hostage and then saved by Navy Seal snipers.

So, let’s discuss some trends in piracy and pirate history. For one we can note that piracy has always existed and it will probably always exist. The ancient Egyptians experienced piracy and we still deal with pirates today. We can analyze the historical trend in piracy however. Pirates, privateers, and others who profit from raiding all live for anarchy. One of the terms that historians have created that can help explain the lack of piracy in most parts of the world today is Pax Britannica and Pax Americana. Let me explain Pax Britannica first. When Britain began to dominate the waves and cut out its empire it began to become the most powerful country in the world. The beginning of Pax Britannica begins at the fall of Napoleon and ends with the two World Wars that crippled the British Empire giving it a 200 percent debt to GDP ratio, a bombed out country, and a much weaker navy. During that time Britain destroyed piracy in every major ocean, spread parliamentary democracy around the world, and helped police international conflict. The 19^th Century saw barely any conflict and very few wars. It was the failure of this international system that Britain led that saw a return once more to trouble on international waters as nations. After the two World Wars America took over Britain’s role as globocop and continued the patrolling of waters and the commitment to free trade. Today America has the most to benefit from keeping the sea lanes free of pirates and therefore commits resources to do so. While Britain did have a navy that was the most powerful in the world during Pax Britannica, America today arguably has both the most powerful navy and army which may cause Pax Americana to last longer than Pax Britannica did. It’s an amazing thing to examine, but, as the Human Security Reports say there has been a dramatic and steady downfall in violence every decade since the Second World War. That means that the 90’s were more peaceful than the 80’s which were more peaceful than the 70’s and so on.

From an economic point of view it has been said that piracy can be merely a way for countries to put a tariff on the goods of other richer countries that might not want to trade with it. For example in Somalia the piracy trade is one of the largest generators of wealth in the country. Piracy can in many ways be a libertarian’s dream way of fighting wars. When a country declares war on another it can profit from charging for letters of marque from privateers. The only problem with that approach, as the British found out, it is hard to make those privateers go away when you want peace. Some nations, such as the Barbary States made it into an entire industry and relied on the corsairs for both revenue and power. Another thing that pirates provided in terms of economic benefit was a free form of national defense. Pirates such as Henry Morgan were really the only thing between the Spanish and the settlers of Jamaica. For the pirates themselves piracy was simply a business, a trade, a means of life. Most of the men who engaged in true lawless piracy were probably mentally ill in some way, but most privateers liked to think of themselves as patriots and would not attack their own countries ships under any circumstances.
Now, the economic effects to the global markets from piracy are large. For one, it raises the costs of global trade by making insurance costs go up. The costs go up even higher as the wages you have to pay for sailing through pirate infested waters must be higher than without. Lastly, the amount of goods being sent decreases as fewer businesses can cope with the costs of sending their product to market. Less goods for the same supply makes prices go up, trade goes down, and decreases globalization. While some might argue that the taxes that go towards the Navy outweigh the costs associated with piracy it is ultimately incorrect if we look at the historical record. As British sea power grew piracy decreased and globalization began to occur. If anything, we know that markets like an absence of war, piracy, and violence to work best. We can also see that as you invest in a global market the costs of that market go down as countries get incentives to police their own waters. All across Europe we don’t see any piracy anymore because as liberal capitalism spreads, so too spreads governments that want trade and don’t want piracy. If you let piracy defeat globalization by providing no police we could see a slide back into the era when armadas of 150,000 pirates sailed the high seas.

Piracy: The Complete History by Angus Konstam

Empire of Blue Sea by Stephan Talty

http://xkcd.com/980/huge/#x=-11542&y=-7598&z=5

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-04-12/world/somalia.pirates_1_navy-snipers-three-pirates-bill-gortney?_s=PM:WORLD

Piracy and World History: An Economic Perspective on Maritime Predation by J. L. Anderson From the Journal of World History,

the Human Security Report http://www.hsrgroup.org/human-security-reports/human-security-report.aspx

The Rambling Intellectual

One of my good friends Michael Schmitz has started up his own History Blog. Mike has always been somewhat of a mentor to me, and I always learn something when talking to him.....maybe he would want to do a podcast sometime in the future.......sorry, thinking out loud here. Well, check him out here at: http://theramblingintellectual.wordpress.com/

2. Piracy Part 1 - Violence For Profit

THIS IS A VERSION OF THE RECORDED PODCAST HISTORY ON THE RUN
A full audio version of this podcast can be found on itunes called History on the Run. It is also available here. This is part 2 of a 5 - part series called Violence for Profit. Enjoy.

The other half of this podcast and blog post will come out next week.

Hello, and welcome to History on The Run! For this episode we’ll be discussing piracy. I’ll try my best to sum up the entire history of piracy into one episode, and then we’ll discuss some theory concerning piracy. So, let’s not waste any time and jump into the history of piracy.

The pirate historian Angus Konstam writes in Piracy: a Complete History that piracy, “has been around since man first took to the sea, a maritime scourge that appeared before the building of the Egyptian pyramids”. The Egyptians dealt with this threat since the 14^th century, and the pirates almost ended Egyptian civilization. At the battle of the Nile in 1175 the “sea peoples” tried to raid Egypt under Ramses the 3^rd. They were a scattered group of peoples from the fringes of society in Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Sardinia who the Libyans, enemies of the Egyptians, had hired to attack Egypt. The Egyptians won this and it was the oldest ever recorded sea battle.

Pirates have always been a scourge on society. They wiped out the Mycenaean civilization in Greece and the Hittite Empire in Asia Minor. They treated the Mediterranean Sea like desert nomads do the desert and would move from place to place and descend like a plague on anyone they met. As Empires like the Athenian and Persian Empires sprang up piracy was quelled in the ports they controlled, but groups like the Aetolian League would wage economic war on their enemies by sending out ships on raiding missions. Along the Adriatic pirates found a secure home where they could have a secure base near major trade networks. Julius Caesar was actually captured by pirates when he was young. He was astonished by the low price they put up for his release. When he was released he said he would hunt down the pirates and have them all killed. When Caesar got back he got together a fleet and found his ex-captors and had them hung. These bases would be cleansed by Pompeii during the Roman Empire, but after the fall in 476 the Dalmatian coast would once again become a base for pirates and would raid the extensive trade network of the Venetians.

After the collapse of Rome the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire took over the job of piracy prevention and remained the bastion of order in the east. However by the late 12^th century the Byzantines had been pushed back by Frankish Crusaders from the west and the Turks from the east. On their attempt to rescue the holy land the crusaders sacked Constantinople in 1204 which limited any ability the Byzantines had left to stop piracy. Piracy popped up in the old places in Crete and elsewhere in the Aegean. The new guy in town also contributed to piracy in the Aegean. The Turkish navy was a mix of private and public vessels to compose their navy. The private forces were basically privateers, and they would often supplement their income with occasional stints of piracy. Also, after the 7^th and 8^th centuries the entire coast of North Africa fell under Muslim control. During the 15^th and 16^th centuries local rulers from the region began to encourage corsairs to use their ports. Eventually, the Barbary States became pirates themselves. Now the Barbary Pirates are a fascinating part of piracy history, and sadly we don’t have enough time to spend on all of them. They could easily be a lecture series all on their own. While I won’t give you everything on them I’ll give you a general history and a focus on one of these pirates.

Ok, first the general history, and then the pirate. The local beys (governors) of the North African coast encouraged pirates in their ports because they were able to tax the pirates to use their base. By the 16^th century it was the corsairs who directly elected the local rulers. This means that these ports were basically pirate havens with a loose allegiance to the Ottoman states. The Caribbean pirates we’ve all grown to know and love would have killed to have their own states in this way. All they ever had was states that barely tolerated them. In the Ottoman world they were at the top of the political food chain and directly ruled the cities they used as bases.

From the end of the Reconquista in Spain these states had a mortal enemy: Spain. The Spanish resisted both Muslim threats on their territory and fought massive battles against Muslim forces such as Lepanto. Eventually it wasn’t the Spanish who brought the Barbary States to their knees, but rather a combined force of European States and America. The Dutch and English scored a series of victories, and the Americans launched an attack on the Barbary States instead of paying for the safe passage of their ships. Eventually, the Europeans all wanted colonies and the Barbary States were at their weakest. Each of them was gobbled up during the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

The first great, and probably the most interesting set of Barbary Corsairs were the Barbarossa Brothers. Barbarossa brothers….has a certain ring, does it not? As it goes Aruj and Hizir….I don’t think I’m pronouncing it right, but let’s just go with it. Ok Aruj and Hizar were born on the island of Lesbos during the 1470’s. The beginnings of their lives are more rumor than fact, but one way they grew up Aruj was made a slave for Christians. After freeing himself he went to the Emir Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri promising vengeance on the Christian barbarians. Is the story true…….meh. It is a cool beginning to a great career however.

The Barbarossa Brothers began by capturing trading galleys, freeing the Muslim galley slaves, and expanding his fleet. They moved out west where targets were available, then, off the island of Elba they ran into two papal galleys, rich with goods. It was here that they got the name Barbarossa. In the Mediterranean there weren’t many bright red beards, so they were called Barbarossa, after their red beards. They were basically the red Muslim version of our favorite pirate Blackbeard. After capturing more ships hundreds flocked to his banner. They were some of the richest men in the Mediterranean area, and they even brought more family into the business. Ishak, another Barbarossa Brother joined Aruj and Hizir in their search for booty and revenge. The brothers were asked to come to the aid of Algiers as the Spanish had taken Bougie and Oran in 1509 which are on either side of Algiers.

The Barbarossa Brothers turned their attention on Bougie, but they had tragically overreached. Aruj lost an arm in the struggle, and even when they attacked again a few years later they were unable to take back the town from the Spanish. Now, I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t like the guys that hacked my arm off. The Barbarossa Brothers became a force to fear for the Spanish. They attacked Spanish ships, raided Spanish ports and towns, and they even attacked the Spanish Coast. Then, in 1516, the Barbarossa Brothers gained a new seat of power to attack the Spanish with. A revolt in Algiers led to chaos and Aruj and his brothers were able to kill the bey of Algiers and take power. He swore his loyalty to the Ottoman Sultan and was officially the bey of Algiers. Not only this, but this pirate was established as the beylerbey of the entire North African Coast. Basically he was the top dog of all the Barbary Pirates.

The good luck of the Barbarossa Brothers would not last forever and their rise would hit a few snags. The main “snag” was that Charles V, the Hapsburg Emperor, king of Spain and ruler much of Europe was personally leading an army to crush the Barbary Pirate problem once and for all. Aruj struck first before Charles could get to Algiers. His goal was to destroy a smaller part of Charles’s army consisting of native Arabs before it could link up with the rest. Unfortunately everything did not go as planned and The Barbarossa Brothers were trapped by the Spanish in the town of Tlemcen. 10,000 Spanish troops defeated the Corsair force of 5,000 pirates and 1,500 regular Ottoman troops. While these were not the numbers of men you’d see in some of the larger battles you can see the importance of the event by the fact that the Emperor considered the pirates such a threat that he personally attacked them. Aruj and Ishak were killed, but Hizar would go on to surpass his brother.

Hizir was passionate in his complete and utter hatred of the Spanish. He terrorized the Spanish more than his brother had. He captured Nice off the coast of France and Reggio in Italy. He participated in the battle of Prevesa and helped defeat the combined Christian fleets. He personally battled against the armies of Charles V and helped sack the island of Rhodes.

This brings me to an important point I really really really need to stress. These pirates consisted of armies of not dozens, but thousands. Their armies were massive and their fleets were able to defeat professional navies. This is something that you can’t even imagine nowadays. Imagine pirates sacking New Orleans or San Francisco.

The Barbary pirates’ power would begin to decline as power shifted away from Spain toward England and France. Unlike the oar powered ships and weak cannons the Northern Europeans brought in large sailing ships that blasted the Barbary Pirate ships out of the water. The Barbary Pirates also benefited from Turkish power which would help them fight off the European navies. As the Turk disappeared from Europe the respective power of the pirates of the African coast was put in jeopardy and they were conquered by Europeans with France getting Algeria, Spain getting Morocco, and Italy getting Tunisia.

In Northern Europe we already covered the main pirate threat: the Vikings. While you might not think that the Vikings would be in the same category as men like Henry Morgan and Blackbeard they are really very similar. Most pirates were also raiders and the Vikings weren’t adverse to attack boats at sea. They ravaged the coastlines of Northern Europe and Britain and even set up their own kingdoms, something no other pirate succeeded to do to the same level as the Vikings. This is why an entire episode was given to these Scandinavian barbarians. Other pirates that operated in Northern Europe include a personal favorite of mine. A very distant ancestor of mine named Klaus Störtebeker was one of the most famous German pirates. Like any pirate he needed a base of operations and he found that in Helgoland, a tiny itsy bitsy island about 20 miles away from the base of the Elbe. It was perfectly situated to take advantage of the massive amount of trade that passed through Hamburg, and it was far enough away to be defendable. Klaus Störtebeker’s name meant “emptying his mug with one gulp”. Apparently the Germans enjoyed drinking then as much as they do now! His flagship, The Colorful Cow was finally captured in 1401. Klaus Störtebeker was captured along with 71 of his men. As the legend goes his captors said they would spare as many men as Klaus could walk by after they cut off his head. He is supposed to have walked past eleven of his men when he was tripped by the executioner.

Meanwhile in the Caribbean piracy once again takes root as nations clash. The conflict began with the Spanish saying that they were the only ones who could trade with their colonies. To get in on all the riches the other nations had only one option: piracy. The English launched pirate voyages in the very same way that small time companies are put together today. A group of investors would buy the ship and supplies needed for an attack and they would put forth a piracy venture. Although it would be called a privateering venture by these investors. A privateer is a pirate ship that only attacks enemies of a certain country. In this case, for English investors it was often Spain. That’s not to say that privateers didn’t attack European cities, quite the opposite in fact. The important thing was that privateers were attracted to gold like a fly to light. In the Caribbean, far from potential reinforcements and filled with New World gold, treasure ships were common and awfully good looking targets. The constant warfare of the Europeans soon proved that there were always targets.

Francis Drake was one of the first of these privateers to go off in search of gold, guts, and glory along with other salty sea dogs like John Hawkins. English privateers were quite numerous. Between 1589 and 1591 some 236 privateers were at sail for just the English. Most came from London or Devon, and 16 of them displaced 200 tons or more which was a formidable ship. Their ventures could be incredibly profitable with one ship holding 80 pounds of gold, and 14 chests filled with silver which totaled 26 tons. That’s right….tons. Tons of silver. Just the 80 pounds of gold would fetch a little over two million dollars and the silver would be a veritable fortune. Back then it would have amounted to around 200,000 English pounds. And this was only 3 percent of the stuff Phillip of Spain took in in one year. Sadly after Elizabeth died James l made peace with Spain and privateering stopped in England. These men behaved more like soldiers than pirates, and they could easily transition to new jobs.

Just because the English stopped being pirates doesn’t mean that piracy stop! Quite the opposite instead. This time it would be the Dutch who would carry the banner of resistance to Spanish rule in the New World. They attacked the Spanish and they also attacked the Portuguese colonies in Brazil. This also was the beginning of other powers creating their own settlements. St. Croix and St. Martin were colonized by the Dutch, the English got St. Kitts, and the French got Barbados. This was not according to the plans the Spanish had for the region, so the Spanish attacked St. Kitts. While the English on the island agreed to go back to Europe the French weren’t so ready and fled to the island of Tortuga. This island would become the next main pirate base in the Caribbean and would be the center of many a pirate story. One of the greats of Tortuga was the pirate L’ollonnais. L’ollonnais is more what you’d expect in a pirate. Bloodthirsty, cruel, and driven simply by the scent of gold he would become the terror of the Caribbean. In 1667 L’ollonnais gathered together a crew of about 20 men and set sail from Tortuga. He would go out, capture a ship and return to pick up more crew members. Disaster struck when L’ollonnais’s ship was struck by a storm and stranded on an island. The crew decided to attack the town despite being severely outnumbered. L’ollonnais only survived by playing dead. L’ollonnais and the survivors were able to sneak aboard a ship and L’ollonnais came back with a fury. He built up his forces and by late 1667 he had over 400 men. This was truly a force to be afraid of. He sacked towns with a brutality never before seen in the region. One time he was led into a trap by a guide, and in a fit of rage L’ollonnais took his cutlass, cut open the man’s chest, and then went in with his hands and ripped out the man’s heart. He began to knaw on the life pumping muscle and then threw it at the other guide, telling him not to make his comrade’s mistake. Eventually, L’ollonnais’s luck would again run out and after having been beaten by the Spanish in a fight L’ollonnais attacked a native village. These natives were more than a match for L’ollonnais and he and his crew were killed in the fight.

Tortuga eventually fell from the number one spot for pirate havens, and it would be replaced by none other than the infamous Port Royal. Port Royal is basically Kingston Jamaica, but it was destroyed in an Earthquake during its heyday and never recovered. During Cromwell’s rule the fiercely Protestant ruler wanted to hurt those Catholic Spaniards in any way possible, so he decided to launch an invasion of the Spanish New World. The result of the expedition was the island of Jamaica. Jamaica was better situated than any of the other non-Spanish colonies to intercept Spanish vessels and privateers flocked to the region which gave safe harbor to any private venture against the Spanish. Henry Morgan was by far the greatest of the Port Royal pirates, although there were tons of them.

Morgan probably came over on that initial invasion fleet. He moved up the ranks in privateer ventures against the Spanish and eventually got his own command where he proved himself to be one of the finest privateers, if not the finest, in all of the Caribbean. He used his relationship with the Governor of Port Royal to have a base, and Modyford used Morgan and his buccaneers to protect the island because….England was a very long way away from Jamaica. They sacked Puertro Principe, now Camagüey in Cuba, Porto Bello, the port that took all the Spanish gold out of Panama, and they even sacked and burnt to the ground Panama City itself. From Morgan’s attack on Porto Bello his crew of 500 men shared 14 million modern US dollars between them. The sack of Panama City yielded 90 million dollars although this time it was divided between 1,500 pirates. And these were the days before millionaires and billionaires around. In fact, 3/5^ths of all the wealth today was created after 1980. These men were rich beyond their wildest imagination.

Morgan operated during the 17^th Century. The beginning of the 18^th Century would lead to, what many pirate historians have labeled “The Golden Age of Piracy”. The number of pirates from this time was massive, and they were all created by, ironically, peace. When the 17^th century ended there was a period of peace in Europe, and all of the privateers were suddenly out of work. Britain alone had 6,000 letters of marque (basically a paper that says you may attack our enemies and have protection in our ports). Previously, most privateers limited their attacks to the Spanish, but now, for this new breed of pirates, all targets were fair game. I don’t think I have enough time to go over even the most remarkable of these pirates, but I’ll list a few famous names and then go over one. Some of the famous names of this time are men like Black Bart, Captain Kidd, Calico Jack Rackam, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Blackbeard himself. Other, not so famous pirates were men such as Henry Jennings, Charles Vane, and the crazy Edward Low. Maybe I could do a series on some of these men and women, but I’ll just give a brief overview of one of these famous pirates.

1. Vikings - Violence For Profit

Podcast is available here

this is the somewhat typed up transcript of the above podcast. Enjoy.

Hello and welcome to the first episode of the first season of History on the Run. Each of these episodes will be coming out weekly. On Friday to be specific, but you can download and listen to them at your own leisure. Whether it’s walking, running, doing chores, or driving to work, I will give you something to think about and talk about with your friends. While I love History, and every episode will have dozens of historical nuggets in them, history is boring by itself. Let’s face it. Dates, names, and places can be interesting, but without something else history is just some people who did some stuff in some places. In a college setting you’d be getting all of the Social Sciences and that is what we’ll bring here at History on the Run. Psychology, economics, sociology, political science, international relations, and every part of that great tree of the social sciences will be touched upon. But, without further ado, let’s get on with the show.

Imagine living in a big city. Every day you hear reports coming in. Stories of the foreboding presence sweeping in from the north filters into your conversations. The only feeling that you can possibly have had that comes anywhere close to what these people feel is that sinking feeling of a deadline you can’t avoid coming up. Just think of it, that dread, boiling in your chest. It’s the procrastinator’s nightmare. Now just think of that feeling times ten. Imagine that today. New York, Washington, San Francisco, Chicago, you name it. Imagine this city surrounded by 40,000 Danes and there’s only you and 200 men at arms assigned to defend the city.

This is what happened to Paris during the 9^th century. While Paris didn’t have the Champ de Elyees, the Eiffel Tower, or the Arc de Triumph it was still an important city of medieval France. At this time France was the heart of the Carolingian Empire, and the locals had tried their best to halt the Viking raid. The Vikings traveled in their famous longboats up and down all of Europe’s rivers. Only twenty years before Vikings in Russia had attacked the capitol of the Byzantine Empire Constantinople! The Vikings were everywhere the rivers could take them. Luckily for them every major city was on some major river, so the pickings were plentiful.

The Carolingians tried to stop the Vikings with everything possible. The most important of these fortifications were the fortified bridges. Paris had two of these fortified bridges to block off the river, and these bridges were the defenders’ best hope at holding off the Viking menace. Bishop Gozlin and Count Odo had to attempt to defend the bridge only two hundred men at arms. While 40,000 might be an exaggeration by Abbo, the poet who recorded the event, we can see that there was a very large Viking force in place. The Danes landed in seven hundred ships and demanded the surrender of the city. Count Odo, however, refused to give up the city to the Danes. Count Odo and his brother Robert the Strong took charge of the defense and fought off attacks against an unfinished tower on the bridge. The attacks failed and the Vikings regrouped for a new plan. The Danes first built siege engines and according to Abbo a thousand shots were fired into the tower. The defenders must have been shell shocked at this point, and the constant barrage repetitively wrecking every defense holding back a force of men who want to rip you apart probably left them nerve-wracked and senseless. At this point the Danes assaulted the tower in three separate groups with each formed into a testudo formation. The testudo is a group formation where all of the troops hold their shields so that every side has shields facing out. The people in the center hold the shields above their heads to catch any arrows that land on top of the group. The Danes would have had to move in a tight formation and move slowly to maintain the formation and have good discipline to make sure anybody who fell from an arrow or a javelin gets replaced. They filled in ditches and cut off the tower from the bridge back to the city and killed the men inside. They then tried to break into the city proper and get their hands on men, women, and children to sell as slaves and all of the valuables they could get their hands on. Luckily for the defenders they held until the Carolingian Emperor showed up. You can just imagine the relief that must have swept over the defenders when they heard the new.

Let’s step back from the siege for a second and ask why did these raiders descend to pillage, loot, and burn Europe? Why did they become the nightmare from the North? I think it’s too often that we look just at their own culture and ignore what made these men become the nightmares of bishops, counts, and emperors from France to the Byzantine Empire. In a way, we do two polar opposite things to these people. We either try and make them into us or we emphasize how they’re not like us.

Let me explain myself here. When we study Vikings you’ll hear a lot about Norse family structure, their history, their culture, their religion, etc, but very seldom do you get into the psychology and economics behind the actions of these raiders. While families, religion, trade, and other such things are very interesting the real importance lies in what they did that changed history. To put it bluntly it’s the raiding, ransoming, and violence that makes these men really interesting. What made them do what they did? What would it take to make you do it?

The second thing we do is we distance ourselves from these types. Take pirates for example; everyone knows about Blackbeard and other worse pirates. We think of cruelty, a feverish desire for wealth, and of course, a love of the rum. What we don’t look at is the motivation. Did it make economic sense to be a pirate? What were the rewards? What caused this? Why isn’t it happening now? Could it happen now? Is it happening now?

So, you might be thinking what is this podcast? This podcast is a lecture series. Each series will be broken down into five lectures. Each series will revolve around a theme. The theme of this series is Violence for profit. The first lecture will deal with Vikings, the second with pirates, mercenaries will come next, we’ll move on to gangsters, and lastly we’ll deal with the armies of conventional states.

So, Vikings, where was I…..Ah yes, the Siege of Paris. The reason the Vikings did these things was simple: profit. Money. Wealth. And for the Vikings it was incredibly profitable. After Charles arrived it did not suddenly look like a clip from the Lord of the Rings with Gandalf leading the relief force to save everyone from the barbarian horde. No, it was quite different. When Charles arrived he paid the Vikings to go away. He would be deposed after coming to the aid of the three year siege with his moneybags. The Carolingian Empire would break up and would not be put back together. Charles would be known as Charles the Fat. Not only did Charles the Fat pay the Danes, but he also let them pass into Burgundy which was not under his control to sack, pillage, and destroy that territory. The Vikings must have made off rather well. After being paid they were able to keep what they had taken from the area around Paris and they were allowed to go into Burgundy to raid for slaves and other goods.

The Vikings got their income through a multitude of ways. One way was simply by trading. The Germans in Denmark had a healthy trading relationship that stretched back to Roman and Celtic periods of history where ideas, goods, and people moved between the cultures. As they began to trade with the new European states after the fall of Rome they also began to raid, and they then began to conquer. The Vikings from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden set up kingdoms in England, Ireland, and Russia through conquest. In Normandy France they were actually invited in. The French were having so many problems fighting the Vikings off they hired Vikings to take care of these other Vikings. It’s like in the business community where you poach your competitor’s employees to use against them.

So let’s imagine that these raiding ventures are a business. Where do they get their revenue? First they get it through the acquisition of goods. Anything that had value they could simply take and sell. This included slaves. At the siege of Paris any free men they found in the countryside were taken into bondage. The Vikings had a long history of slavery. When attacking other neighboring local villages they would take the prisoners and sell them as slaves, and when they met other cultures taking them as slaves was done without hesitation. In Ireland, for instance, the Vikings were incredibly involved in the slave trade. ‘The Annals of Ulster’ record times when the Vikings swept down and took cattle, men, women, children, and anything else they could lug onto their ships. The Vikings used their large trade network to send their slaves all over the known world. We know that many of slaves went to Muslim Spain, but it’s possible slaves could have been traded along the entire network that stretched from Iceland to India. We know that their trade network expanded this far because in an archeological dig on the Swedish island of Helgö a small statue of Buddha was found. Clearly globalization is nothing new. It’s also interesting to think that in the Arab World or India there are people with an Irish heritage they don’t even know about.

Now today we have ceased to view human beings as being part of a market, but this is simply because cultures can decide what is a market and what is not a market. For example there is a market over my time and my labor, but there is no market over me. Certain things like Dum dum rounds, mines, and chemical weapons are markets for some and for others as horrid as slavery. We in America do not allow a market for the time of children to exist, but in many other countries around the globe they have no qualms about such a market. Interestingly enough while we make a market for a child’s labor illegal here in the US we deal every day with markets that deal with child labor. For the average Viking a slave was the same thing as any other good and was bought and sold at in capitalist markets where prices and quantities were controlled by supply and demand. If you’re still not following me let me give you another example. Today our friends are not markets. When we are on Facebook we don’t think about profit, revenue, or any other business terms. But what about the future? Is this going to change? Some people would like this to change and are trying to turn your friendships into a business….for you. Here’s a clip from a site talking about a new Social Network site called MyPage5

MyPage5
Quote, “They call it “the MOST FINANCIALLY REWARDING social networking site in the world”, which is true to some extend. You earn $5 just for signing up and the rest is as followed: (you can do most of these as many times as you want to), Create blog= 4c, Blog Comment= 1c, Upload video= 3c, Video comment= 1c, Post classified= 1c, Start topic in a group= 1c, Group Comment= 1c, Profile comment= 1c, Upload photo to album= 1c, Photo comment= 1c, Band comment= 1c, Chat reward= 2c, plus 5% of your referral’s daily activities. As you can see, there are a lot of ways to make money on this site. You will be paid via pay pal.”

http://www.blogstash.com/5-social-networking-sites-to-make-money-socializing/

Other sites are popping up like daisies. Things like FrensZone, 60gr, ApSense, Gather, and so many more are trying to attract Facebook’s users by letting them share in the spoils

Ok, I think we’ve got a bit distracted. Ok, Viking revenue streams. We have goods, slaves, and of course land. Land, before the industrial revolution was one of the most valuable things in the world. Land came with serfs who were people tied to the land and were basically slaves. Land got you food, people, and of course status. The one thing you had to do was defend your land and your people because others wanted to take it. When the Vikings thought they could keep the land they did. In the areas that had a strong state with a long periods of Roman Rule the Vikings weren’t able to take any land, and in the case they did they were invited by the ruler. In Russia, Ireland, and England there wasn’t a strong state that was able to resist Viking advance. In the case of England there had been Roman rule, but it had not been for as long a time as France and was always a periphery of the Empire. In the case of Normandy the Vikings had been invited in and were able to become an established part of French culture.

So, goods, people, and land are all forms of profit for the Viking raider. Another way of creating wealth for the future mascots of the Purple People Eaters from Minnesota involved zero violence. Historians have labeled the term Danegeld. It was basically a tribute system that prevented the Vikings from attacking. The threat of violence that generated tribute was the final form of income for these raiders. The best part is not a drop of blood was spilt in the process.

The Vikings developed technology in their boats that allowed them to travel up rivers easily. These longboats were able to travel across oceans and across Europe. They were such good sailors that nobody….let me repeat that….nobody…..tried to challenge the Vikings at sea. Charlemagne, by far the pinnacle of the Carolingian Empire only fortified the border. It’s hard to imagine that one of the greatest military commanders of the Middle Ages would back away from challenging the Vikings at sea if he thought there was any chance that he could beat them. This means that the Vikings had complete control of the seas. This gave them the strategic advantage because they could land anywhere at any time. This mobility gave them an ability to strike all of Europe’s major cities…..and they did.

However the Vikings did need to fight once they landed. Boats don’t win wars on land…ok…that’s not quite true, but nonetheless the Vikings had to be a force on the battlefield to be the scourge of Europe. The Vikings certainly had the tactics, weapons, and battlefield prowess to be just that. The main armor that would have been worn by Viking warriors was chain mail with an iron helm with a nose guard. Chain mail is basically thousands of little steel or iron links that formed a shirt. Any type of slash would have the same effect as a blunt object, but stabbing attacks were often able to pierce the chain mail mesh. To give this a little personal flair I own a shirt of chain mail….and let’s just say I enjoyed wearing it around at places like….school. Someone would always think they were clever and stab me with their pencil asking, “does this hurt?” Unfortunately, as I said, a stabbing motion is just able to pass through the rings, and so yes, it did hurt. Another thing about chain mail is it often times went just past the hips like a very short skirt. That means there was little protecting your shins from blows. Lastly, the Vikings carried a wooden round shield to deflect blows.

The main weapon of the Vikings was not an axe, but a sword. They did use axes as well, and we’ll get to that, but the main weapon of choice was a 2 to three foot Frankish broadsword. Ironically it was Frankish weapons that were used to terrorize the France. Every free Scandinavian had some skill with a blade as it was also a weapon of defense. Throwing axes, and later in the 10^th century a two handed axe started to be used by the Scandinavians. Finally, along with spears both bows and javelins were used by Vikings to great effect. Most Vikings hunted for game regularly, so their ability with a bow should not be underestimated.

In the Icelandic Sagas there is a great detail given to battles and how they took place with a large amount of detail involved. One of the things that this shows is that everyone who listened was familiar with an assortment of weapons and their uses.

Viking fleets would often merge and this meant that several thousand Vikings wearing armor that was the best for its times could emerge basically anywhere. For military historians it’s a stroke of genius. For the Vikings at the time it was just a good way to make money and get land. Which, of course, they did.

Stay tuned next week for the next lecture in the series “Violence 4 Profit”. We’ll be looking to Pirates. Not only were they the scourges of the seas, but they were oftentimes good business ventures.

Sources:

Piracy: The Complete History by Angus Konstam

The Medieval Siege by Jim Bradbury

War in the Middle Ages by Philippe Contamine

The lecture series The Vikings by Kenneth W. Harl

The lecture series The Medieval World by Thomas F. Madden

http://www.blogstash.com/5-social-networking-sites-to-make-money-socializing/

Job Creation in the US. Growth is slow, but steady.

Economic Rap of the Day:

This is the next best thing since sliced bread. I love it.

Click Here to listen to the rap.

Why I am Not An Austrian

I am not a fan of Ron Paul. This may shock you when you hear it because I am a young college student and a avid fan of politics, economics, and history. Many people have drifted in the Austrian direction because it has ties to the libertarian roots of America. I can respect all of the arguments that are put forth about rights, liberty, and constitutional correctness, but I do not agree with the arguments that have been put forth by the economic wing of the Ron Paul Movement.

Let me first put some things out there. I have read two of Ron Paul's books. I have read a lot of Austrian literature and I am not ignorant to the points made in it. Let me also say that I respect Ron Paul. I do not think he is a racist, bigot, or anything some in the media have said. He is an honorable man that has stuck to his guns his entire life/career. That is honorable. He seems to be a good honest family man that has a great life.

However on economics he and his entire wing are wrong. Let me first sum up the two major points of Austrian economics and then I will begin with the rebuttal.

1. Math and statistics are useless in economics. According the Austrians we are all irrational creatures. We do not follow patterns. It is impossible to say what we are going to do and anyone who tries to predict human behaviors will fail. If bubbles do happen they are impossible to predict and if an economist gets this one right he might not get the next one right.

2. The government is the root of all evil in economics. When the government lowers interest rates, creates a stimulus, or really does anything it creates a bubble by raising investment.


Ok, now for the critiques:

1. These two views are hypocritical.
To accept that nobody else can make predictions using math and real world statistics, but you can say things using logic flies in the face of logic itself. Economic discoveries such as the Phillips Curve or recently the Leverage Cycle allow us to understand the underlying currents of economic activity and operate on the same principles as your logic, but unlike your logic it is based from trial in the real world and real markets.

2. The facts don't support the conclusions.

Now, if the data supported the conclusion that whenever interest rates are lowered a bubble is caused in a cyclical motion the Austrians would have something to brag about. Unfortunately, when we look at the data which to an Austrian is like light to a vampire we find something different. Milton Friedman, by far the biggest economist of the 20th century published a report that soundly showed the Austrian Business Cycle to be in correct. Crashes don't happen in a cyclical nature when the federal government eases up on the credit, but rather happens when a perfect storm of events produce the right atmosphere for a recession or a depression. During the recovery we've seen a tripling of the monetary base, but tiny inflation and a steady recovery.

3. Austrian Economics doesn't explain the fall off of demand during a recession. Krugman has a good article on this.

4. The government can act as a helping hand to the economy. Let me give you a metaphor for this one. Stimulus is like surgery. It can hurt to help create a crisis. I'm sure if you were healthy and were popped up on the table for a kidney transplant for no reason it would be no fun and could actually cause some major problems. In that way when Greenspan lowered the interest rate before the crash began the US economy underwent surgery when we were healthy which helped bring about the crisis. The Austrians are like skeptics who say that since medicine can hurt when used poorly it shouldn't be used at all. Today, Austrians have about as many real economists in their numbers in Universities as Marxists. I hope that proves a point.

5. One Neoclassical argument that I find tough to chew and can't really accept is their reason for why stimulus doesn't work. The Neoclassicals say that investors are rational and if they are given money by the government today they'll save it for when government takes it away tomorrow. I don't buy it, but I thought I'd mention it.