User:BrennanJKlim/Letter of Marque

Letters of marque allowed governments to fight their wars using mercenary like soldiers to hunt down enemies and fight their wars instead of using their navy. Oftentimes it was cheaper and easier to issue letters of marque to privateers than to keep a long standing navy. Instead of building, funding, and maintaining a navy in times of peace and in times of war, governments would issue letters of marque to privateers so they could fight the nations battles. This way, the government of the nation issuing the letter of marque were not responsible to fix or maintain any of the privateers ships since they were owned by the privateers.