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EconTalk

Peter Leeson on Pirates and the Invisible Hook

EconTalk

Library of Economics and Liberty

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4.74.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2009

⏱️ 72 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Peter Leeson of George Mason University and author of The Invisible Hook talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the economics of 18th century pirates and what we can learn from their behavior. Leeson argues that pirates pioneered a number of important voluntary institutions such as constitutions as a way to increase the profitability of their enterprises. He shows how pirates used democracy and a separation of powers between the captain and the quartermaster to limit the potential for predation or abuse on the part of the captain. He explains the role of the Jolly Roger in limiting damages from conflict with victims. The conversation closes with a discussion of the lessons for modern management.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.

0:12.5

I'm your host Russ Roberts of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover

0:17.3

Institution.

0:18.7

Our website is econtalk.org, where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast,

0:25.8

and find links to other information related to today's conversation.

0:29.9

Our email address is mailadicontalk.org.

0:33.6

We'd love to hear from you.

0:38.2

Today is May 18th, and my guest is Peter Leeson, BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism.

0:44.2

Here at the Department of Economics at George Mason University and the author of The Invisible

0:48.6

Hook.

0:49.6

Pete, welcome to Econ Talk.

0:51.0

Thank you very much for having me.

0:52.8

Our topic for today is the Economics of Pirate Life, the subject of your recent book, The

0:57.6

Invisible Hook.

0:58.8

You argue that Pirate Life was pretty orderly.

1:02.1

That's not really what we think of when we think of pirates.

1:04.5

We sort of think, I think of a bunch of guys running up the rig and they've got knives

1:09.7

and cutlaces or whatever else they've got in their teeth and it's kind of like a big

1:13.8

boil of fighting and scrumming and chaos, but that's not the case.

1:19.6

Well, it's interesting because I think that's certainly part of our popular image of pirates

1:25.9

is that there are these rogues which they were.

1:28.1

They were criminals and they were highly disorderly criminals and that's the way that they've

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