Piracy, as old as sea trade itself, expanded to become a global phenomenon at the beginning of the early modern period, with the exploitation of the oceans during 16th-century European expansionism. The first French, English, and Dutch seafarers who challenged the Iberian claims to monopoly and plagued the New World with raids were tradesmen, smugglers, and pirates rolled into one, so that they could also be called commercial corsairs. The economic damage done by corsairs like Richard Hawkins and Diego In…