Pirates of Empire: Illicit Economies and the Making of the Caribbean-Atlantic World

In the turbulent centuries of empire, the Caribbean was not merely a battlefield of nations, it was the beating heart of a global underground. Pirates of Empire reveals how smugglers, privateers, and rogue traders built an illicit economy that reshaped the Atlantic world, fueling fortunes, revolutions, and the birth of modern capitalism itself.

From Havana to Port Royal, from Bristol’s counting houses to the hidden coves of Hispaniola, Davis Truman uncovers the shadow networks that thrived beneath imperial rule. These were the real architects of the empire’s wealth, men and women who blurred the line between outlaw and entrepreneur, freedom and servitude, conquest and survival. Their ships carried more than plunder: they carried people, ideas, and commodities that transformed continents.

With gripping storytelling and cutting-edge scholarship, Pirates of Empire reframes piracy not as rebellion against empire, but as its indispensable partner. It exposes how colonial powers quietly relied on black markets to sustain their ambitions, and how these hidden economies gave rise to the modern Caribbean, multicultural, volatile, and endlessly creative.

Blending adventure and analysis, Pirates of Empire invites readers to sail into the murky waters where legality and legitimacy collided, and where the foundations of the modern world were forged in contraband and courage.