Historically, Privateers were individuals who, under a Letter of Marque from their Sovereign, used their own means to defend the realm. The best example of Privateer action was the British fleet which defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. Privateers demonstrably considered the realm worth defending. In that, they were volunteers. But they were more than volunteers. They provided the means to protect their nation out of their own pockets.
In 1688, 100 years after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, came the Glorious Revolution in Britain. 100 years after that, in 1789, came the signing of the U.S. Constitution. In both cases, the men involved pledged their "lives, liberty, and sacred honour". So did the Privateers of the English fleet of 1588. And, in doing so, they made the giant leaps towards freedom over the next 200 years possible.
What was true in 1588, in 1688, in 1776, and in 1789 is equally true today. If you, as they did, hold your life and everything you have made of it as your own personal private possession; if you know that adulthood is not conferred automatically at a certain age but begins with the acceptance of individual responsibility and independence; if you understand that maturity is the acceptance, with all that entails, of the fact that your time on earth is limited ...then you are a Privateer.
There is no need for cutlasses, eye patches, or skulls and crossbones. All you need is the knowledge that your money IS your life - just as surely as is the irreplaceable time you spent earning it. Properly understood, every honest man and woman on earth who produces more than they consume is both a PRIVATEER and an "Individual Capitalist".
And that's why our masthead states:
