Editing Piracy (section)

==== Illegal trade and authority ====
Pirates engaged in a number of different schemes to make a living.  Smuggling and illegal trade overseas were major sources of revenue for pirate bands, both large and small.<ref name="Higgins. 1980. p. 31">Higgins. 1980. p. 31</ref>  As the Ming government mostly outlawed private trade overseas, at least until the overseas silver trade contributed to a lifting of the ban, pirates basically could almost by default control the market for any number of foreign goods.<ref name="Higgins. 1980. p. 31"/><ref>Von Glahn, Richard. ''The Economic History of China: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century''. Cambridge, UK. {{ISBN|9781107030565}}. {{OCLC|919452147}}. p. 307</ref><ref name="Von Glahn. 2016. p. 308">Von Glahn. 2016. p. 308</ref>  The geography of the coastline made chasing pirates quite difficult for the authorities, and private overseas trade began to transform coastal societies by the 15th century, as nearly all aspects of the local society benefitted from or associated with illegal trade.<ref>Higgins. 1980. p. 32</ref> The desire to trade for silver eventually led to open conflict between the Ming and illegal smugglers and pirates.  This conflict, along with local merchants in southern China, helped persuade the Ming court to end the [[haijin]] ban on private international trade in 1567.<ref name="Von Glahn. 2016. p. 308"/>

Pirates also projected local political authority.<ref name=":1">MacKay. 2013. p. 558</ref>  Larger pirate bands could act as local governing bodies for coastal communities, collecting taxes and engaging in "protection" schemes.  In addition to illegal goods, pirates ostensibly offered security to communities on land in exchange for a tax.<ref name=":2">MacKay. 2013. p. 557</ref>  These bands also wrote and codified laws that redistributed wealth, punished crimes, and provided protection for the taxed community.<ref name=":1" />  These laws were strictly followed by the pirates, as well.<ref name=":3">MacKay. 2013. p. 567</ref>  The political structures tended to look similar to the Ming structures.<ref name=":3" />