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groupd ofpirates fonned their own social spheres, and that the
"governments" of these groups (as expressed in ships' "articles")
were both anarchistic in affording maximum individual
freedoms, and communistic in eliminating economic hierarchy.
The social organization of the pirates has no parallel in
any of the tI/ateJ of the 15-18th centuries-e.xcept .Rabal-Sale.
The Republic of Bou Regreg was not a pure pirate utopia,
it was a state founded on piratical principles; in fact, it was the
only state ever founded on these principles.50
Once again. an examination of the division of spoils will
give us a precise structural insight into corsair society. In the
Ottoman Barbary states:
The scale for division of the profits of a cruise
is instructive. In the 1630's the pasha took 12
percent in Algiers, 10 percent in Tunis, the
repairs for the mole 1 percent; the marabout, 1
percent. Of the remaining 88 or 86 percent,
half went to the shipowners, and the other half
to the crew and soldiers. Ofthe second half the
reis received 10-12 parts, the agha.3 parts, the
pilot .3 parts, navigator .3 parts, sail master .3
parts, master of the hatch 2 parts, surgeon .3
parts, sailors 2 parts; if there were Moors
aboard, they were given only 1 part "because
they are people on whom one does not count
much." If any of these people were slaves, the
patron took their shares and sometimes gave
part of it to the slaves. Dan's account of the
30. Unless it be G. d'Annunzio's infamous Republic of Fiume
which llnanced its briefexistence by piracy, and had a constitution
based on the idea ofmusic as the only force of social organization.
See Philippe Julien, trans., D'Anrw.n.zio.
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division corresponds approximately with those
of other informants. [Wolfe, 1979: 144. The
Marabout is the Sufi or shrine-guardian who
blesses the ships and prays for their success.]
We see that ship owners receive half the profits after
"taxes", but in many cases the captains owned their own
Even so, this practise certainly seems proto-capitalist.
On the other hand, the captain as captain (rather than as
-) receives only 10 to 12 times as much as the worstcrew
man, while European privateer captains were paid
times. This seems to indicate a somewhat egalitarian
is a bit difficult to interpret.
the usual method of divying the spoils under
the Moorish Republic was as follows:
-10% to the central authority (the Divan
of Sale);
-halfthe remainder, to the outfitter [Larmateur]
(or to the rais) to indemnifY him for
damages incurred on the expedition;
-the other half-45% of the total
booty-to the ship's crew. Officers. pilot. master
gunner and surgeon usually received .3
parts, while the master of manoevers, the calfat.
and the cannoneers -two parts.
(Coindreau, p. 64]
No prey, no pay, as all pirates agreed-but even in the
of a fruitless voyage, the crew was not charged for
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