To be fair, historically, capturing people was likely always far more lucrative. The Mediterranean piracy for instance far was bigger (by several magnitudes) th

To be fair, historically, capturing people was likely always far more lucrative. The Mediterranean piracy for instance far was bigger (by several magnitudes) than the much more culturally popular Caribbean piracy. The Barbary pirates enslaved about 1.25 million people between 1530 and 1780 (and it was a massive threat in the Middle Ages and ancient times we just don't really have reliable figures). It was such a massive threat that coastal villages all but disappeared throughout much of Mediterranean Europe. The barbary pirates went as far as Ireland, England or even Iceland to murder an enslave people. This was an issue up until the 1800s (the first foreign war the US fought was against Morocco and Tripolitania) when the European powers finally took a break from fighting each other to do something about their common enemies who were terrorizing their subjects for centuries.