- Leeson, Peter T.
The Invisible Hook.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.
ISBN 978-0-691-13747-6.
-
(Guest review by
Iron Jack Rackham)
Avast, ye scurvy sea-dogs! Here we gentlemen of profit have
crafted our swashbuckling customs to terrify those we prey
upon, and now along comes a doubly-damned economist,
and a landlubber at that, to explain how our curious ways
can be explained by our own self-interest and lust for
booty. Why do we who sail under
the skull and crossbones democratically elect our captains
and quartermasters: one pirate, one vote? Why do all pirates
on the crew share equally in the plunder? Why do so many
sailors voluntarily join pirate crews? Why do we pay
“workman's compensation” to pirates wounded
in battle? Why did the pirate
constitutions that govern our ships embody separation of powers
long before landlubber governments twigged to the idea? Why
do we hoist the Jolly Roger and identify ourselves as pirates
when closing with our prey? Why do we torture and/or slay
those who resist, yet rarely harm crews which surrender
without a fight? Why do our ships welcome buccaneers of all
races as free men on an equal basis, even when
“legitimate” vessels traded in and used black
slaves and their governments tolerated chattel slavery?
This economist would have you believe it isn't our
outlaw culture that makes us behave that way, but rather that
our own rational choice, driven by our righteous thirst for
treasure chests bulging with jewels, gold, and pieces of
eight leads us, as if by an invisible hook, to cooperate
toward our common goals. And because we're
hostis humani generis,
we need no foul, coercive governments to impose this governance
upon us: it's our own voluntary association which imposes the
order we need to achieve our highly profitable plunder—the
author calls it “an-arrgh-chy”, and it
works for us. What's that? A sail on the horizon? To yer'
posts, me hearties, and hoist the Jolly Roger, we're off
a-piratin'!
Thank you, Iron Jack—a few more remarks, if I may…there's
a lot more in this slim volume (211 pages of main text):
the Jolly Roger as one of the greatest brands of all time,
lessons from pirates for contemporary corporate managers,
debunking of several postmodern myths such as pirates having
been predominately homosexual (“swishbucklers”), an
examination of how pirates established the defence in
case of capture that they had been compelled to join the
pirate crew, and an analysis of how changes in Admiralty law
shifted the incentives and brought the golden age of piracy to
an end in the 1720s.
Exists there a person whose inner child is not fascinated
by pirates? This book demonstrates why pirates also appeal
to one's inner anarcho-libertarian, while giving pause to
those who believe that market forces, unconstrained by a code
of morality, always produce good outcomes.
A podcast
interview with the author is available.
June 2009 