Pirate Ports And Harbors Of West Coh Analysis

During the beginning of the seventeenth century, pirate activity began off the coast of Ireland. In her article, Pirate Ports and Harbors of West Cork in Seventeenth Century Ireland, Connie Kelleher examines the impact that pirating had on the economic and social development of rural southern Ireland. Kelleher explains that although piracy was an illegal activity frowned upon by the British government, the activity of privateers and their families on the coast of Ireland brought a substantial amount of prosperity to the British Empire. Pirate activity began off the coast of Ireland following the union of the Spanish and British crowns by King James I of England in 1603. During the period of peace following the union of Spain and England,
Kelleher notes that a detailed trading network began among the residents of Munster. “The business of piracy in Munster formed part of an established illicit trading network that operated to the socio-economic benefit of all those involved. A vibrant regional economy supported an operation that focused on black marketeering of goods brought directly ashore by the pirates in their ships, into the main ports and harbors there or smuggled ashore in the smaller coves and havens of the southwest. In turn the pirates were supplied and revictualled with local industrial and agricultural produce at inflated prices.” Attracted to the increasing wealth of the colony, many British aristocrats swarmed to Ireland to build on their land holdings in Munster. As agricultural development increased, the trade market between plantation owners and pirates grew stronger and the colony prospered. The presence of the Munster colony not only created revenue for the British Empire, it also created a new trade route and increased the number of ports available for trade between England and its neighboring countries. Britain benefited so greatly from the colonists in Munster because the owners of the private trading companies and their associates wished to remain British citizens despite their opposition to King James’s strict jurisdiction. The settlers were loyal to the crown and wished to remain part of England and as a result, Munster increased
Although the privateers directly disobeyed the law, the condemnation of their actions would have deprived the British Empire of a substantial amount of wealth. The British Empire ignored the actions of the Munster colonists in order to reap the spoils of their actions. The Munster plantation did not rise to power in an uncorrupted fashion but never the less it was an extremely important British settlement that brought a great amount of wealth to the British Empire. Without the piratical of the British privateers in the seventeenth century, Cork may have never become the sprawling international city that it is