Arr! Pirate Economy.

Talking about economics prof Peter Leeson, Joanna Weiss gives a taste of the social experiment that was piracy in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

To Leeson, pirate democracy was an institution born of necessity. In one successful cruise, a pirate could take home what a merchant sailor earned in 50 years. Yet a business enterprise made up of the violent and lawless was clearly problematic: piracy required common action and mutual trust. And pirates couldn't rely on a government to set the rules. Some think that "without government, where would we be?" Leeson says. "But what pirates really show is, no, it's just common sense. You have an incentive to try to create rules to make society get along. And that's just as important to pirates as it is to anybody else."

His book: The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates, History's Most Notorious Criminals, won't be out until 2009, but here's some more information on it.

Plus a paper "Pirational Choice: The Economics of Infamous Pirate Practices."

Hat tip: The Volokh Conspiracy