The History of Port Royal!
Contrary to what ye may have seen in Pirates of the Caribbean, Port Royal, Jamaica was a very hospitable town to Pirates. Being slightly more like what ye saw in the movie's Tortuga! It was fairly normal for port towns in the 17th Century n' very early 18th Century to welcome pirates for the simple reason that they had lots o' money to spend from their latest raid on a Spanish Treasure Fleet or Merchant Vessel.
From the Community's perspective the pirates were a driving force in Port Royal's economy, they would go ashore with a fortune n' spend most of their earnins on food, drink n' luxury goods. In the 1660's there was One Drinking House per Ten 10 Residents because of the effect the sailors had. Barter n' Trade was still fairly normal in this time period among common folk, but allegedly Port Royal ran on the exchange of coinage it had done so well.
The pirates enjoyed Port Royal because it was strategically placed along multiple trading routes they could prey on. As long as they paid their dues to the local governors they also had a safe haven to fall back to, early British Governors would welcome successful pirate crews personally. Pirates could even compose the local garrison to defend the town against attacks. It was such a famous town among pirates that they would travel from as far as Madagascar to enjoy what had become the "Sodom of the New World."
Port Royal itself was ravaged by an earthquake in 1692, n' most of the region's economic activity was moved to nearby Kingston, Jamaica. Soon thereafter the British cracked down on piracy n' made the settlement the primary location to hang n' execute unsanctioned pirates! http://bit.ly/2mUb2aE
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