Incidentally it was the nations of England, France, Spain and Denmark that caused piracy. Not only did they give charters to captains to give them the right to attack another nations ships, but they harboured them.
The British ports were notorious for this. Spain had control of the gold, so Britain allowed their pirates to attack the gold galleons and haul it back to British ports. The pirates would eventually spend said gold in the port buying items imported from Europe and transferring wealth back to the old world (incidentally this actually faired better for England than it did Spain, as the Spanish gold went into the governments coffers. The stolen gold entered the economy).
I agree, piracy isn't likely to happen just randomly. Without ports harbouring pirates the oceans became clear pretty quickly. The European superpowers didn't want to go to war with each other, but it was still in their own best advantage to sabotage the other.
Remember the majority of 'pirates' were privateers. Many privateer ships were commissioned when their host nation went to war and decommissioned when the war ended. Whenever you see in the movies a pirate ship landing at Port Royal or Tortuga, then they likely had letters of marque from Britain or France against the Spanish, if not they would be real pirates and even then they'd have safe harbour if they didn't piss off the authorities.
Steed Bonnet for instance was a pirate attacking British/any vessels. However he received an official pardon (along with Blackbeard) from his life of crime. However (unlike Blackbeard) he set sail for a Dutch settlement to buy a letter of marque and become a Dutch privateer against the Spanish. However, this didn't happen. He turned to all out piracy very shortly after his departure and when news got back that it was him, then the governor that pardoned him sent the military after him. Then he did the neck hanging dance.
Privateers were even known to reclaim colonies from pirates for being issued letters of marque.
IMO piracy and privateers have a very strong likelihood of occurring. We're already seeing signs that it's going to be companies to exploit space before governments, similar to in the Caribbean. It will only take one nation permitting privateers to operate before all nations and companies of size will be operating privateers. It's the logical step if governments aren't capable of exerting their force more than corporations.
The British ports were notorious for this. Spain had control of the gold, so Britain allowed their pirates to attack the gold galleons and haul it back to British ports. The pirates would eventually spend said gold in the port buying items imported from Europe and transferring wealth back to the old world (incidentally this actually faired better for England than it did Spain, as the Spanish gold went into the governments coffers. The stolen gold entered the economy).
I agree, piracy isn't likely to happen just randomly. Without ports harbouring pirates the oceans became clear pretty quickly. The European superpowers didn't want to go to war with each other, but it was still in their own best advantage to sabotage the other.
Remember the majority of 'pirates' were privateers. Many privateer ships were commissioned when their host nation went to war and decommissioned when the war ended. Whenever you see in the movies a pirate ship landing at Port Royal or Tortuga, then they likely had letters of marque from Britain or France against the Spanish, if not they would be real pirates and even then they'd have safe harbour if they didn't piss off the authorities.
Steed Bonnet for instance was a pirate attacking British/any vessels. However he received an official pardon (along with Blackbeard) from his life of crime. However (unlike Blackbeard) he set sail for a Dutch settlement to buy a letter of marque and become a Dutch privateer against the Spanish. However, this didn't happen. He turned to all out piracy very shortly after his departure and when news got back that it was him, then the governor that pardoned him sent the military after him. Then he did the neck hanging dance.
Privateers were even known to reclaim colonies from pirates for being issued letters of marque.
IMO piracy and privateers have a very strong likelihood of occurring. We're already seeing signs that it's going to be companies to exploit space before governments, similar to in the Caribbean. It will only take one nation permitting privateers to operate before all nations and companies of size will be operating privateers. It's the logical step if governments aren't capable of exerting their force more than corporations.