Main description: What can today's corporate raiders learn from the scourge of the high seas? A lot, as it turns out! Pirates have a surprising amount to teach about building better organizations, promoting diversity in the workplace, and creating powerful brands, among many other business...

The invisible hook -- Vote for Blackbeard. The economics of pirate democracy -- An-arrgh-chy. The economics of the pirate code -- Skull & bones. The economics of the Jolly Roger -- Walk the plank. The economics of pirate torture -- Pressing pegleg. The economics of pirate conscription -- Equal...

Is a genuine social contract mythical? I argue that pirates created genuine social contracts that established a system of constitutional democracy based on the same decision making calculus and with the same effects that Buchanan and Tullock's contractarian theory of government describes in The...

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- 1. The Invisible Hook -- 2. Vote for Blackbeard: The Economics of Pirate Democracy -- 3. An-arrgh-chy: The Economics of the Pirate Code -- 4. Skull & Bones: The Economics of the Jolly Roger -- 5. Walk the Plank:...