Introduction - Who was Peter Easton
Among numerous pirates who lurked along the water wild and sparsely settled in the coast of Newfoundland in the 16th century, Peter Easton was one of the most elite, successful and well-knew pirate (Ossian & Ossian, n.d.).
His plundering on the sea ranged from Newfoundland, the Grand Banks south to the Spanish Main, and the Caribbean.
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Which made him one of the Scourges of the western Atlantic for more than ten years in pirating business, he held so much sea power and controlled the Atlantic sea business to the point that no country could afford to ignore his power (Ossian & Ossian, n.d.).
He was so powerful that no pirate managed to overtake him and not a single commissioned naval fleet managed to hunt him down during his piracy expeditions.
Thesis statement : This paper will examine how Peter Easton exploited the North Atlantic Sea business and how it affected England trade and the Caribbean directly.
Topic sentence 2 - Brief history of Peter Easton as a pirate
Peter Easton was initially a British privateer who led the British maritime warfare expeditions to maintain peace in the Newfoundland coastline.
Queen Elizabeth 1 funded all the every privateer expeditions, but after the death her death, Peter Easton and his crew were left with no source of income to sustain them at Newfoundland, and hence they embarked on pirate expeditions at Atlantic sea since this was the only available option for raising money (Hunt, n.d.).
Topic sentence 3 – Easton’s pirate activities at sea
Easton with his crew member began attacking Spanish ships which carried gold and goods at the North Atlantic and Caribbean; they also demanded and received protection money from the British ships to guarantee them safe passage at the Caribbean seas.
He also began offering physical security to voyage ships belonging to traders; the protection was a form of preventing these ships from getting attacked by other pirate groups, though the trader had to pay a certain protection fee.
During the 16th century, the Caribbean was the main sugarcane producer, and the British had established factories to process sugarcane since sugar was a valuable product that helped to maintain the British tea drinking culture.
Easton and his crew became ruthless and raised the protection fee to any ship that made a voyage to the Caribbean through the North Atlantic Sea.
Topic sentence 4 - The effects of his pirate activities on British trade
The sailors together will traders felt threatened and only a small number of ships maintained to make voyages to the Caribbean (Horwood, 2011).
The brought about the negative effect to the British-Caribbean trade directly since just little amount of goods that were traded between the two Nations which means only less amount of revenue that was realize from the trade.
Easton furthermore blockaded the Bristol Channel, which was a significant inlet to all cruises which wished to enter the island of Great Britain Port.
He effectively managed to control all the ships entering and leaving England, controlling such entry point made it difficult for England to trade freely with the Caribbean since Easton only allowed traders ships to enter the port or leave Britain after paying a certain fee.
Easton and his crew became notorious to the point that, they began preying both foreign vessels and British ships, which made the voyage through the Atlantic sea.
They plundered about thirty Briton ships at the St. Johns port in modern Canada, holding the entire sailor hostage along with their treasures and goods.
It is estimated that Easton and his crew inflicted damage of twenty thousand pounds on fishing fleets which included Britain ships.
Conclusion
The reasons discussed above shows how Peter Easton and his crew managed held control of ships that voyaged through the North Atlantic Sea.
The trade between British and Caribbean was negatively affected by Peter Easton pirate expeditions, which led to the loss of huge amount revenue, due to his notorious acts of plundering trader ships.
The Caribbean countries produced most of the raw material for British industries since labor was plenty and cheap and presence of natural resources.
References
Horwood, H. (2011). Plunder & Pillage: Atlantic Canada's Brutal and Bloodthirsty Pirates and Privateers. Formac Publishing Company Limited.
Hunt, E. (n.d.). Biography – EASTON, PETER – Volume I (1000-1700) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved from http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/easton_peter_1E.html
Ossian, R., & Ossian, R. (n.d.). Peter Easton. Retrieved from http://www.thepirateking.com/bios/easton_peter.htm
