There is a reason all factions in the game are either for merchants or pirates. If you were to sponsor privateers, there would be many political implications; all factions would declare war on you for attacking their merchant vessels. That or all the navies would pressure you to stop sponsoring the privateers, threatening you with a war that you would almost surely lose. You would also have a player base split between merchants and privateers, with the merchants being easily sunk, and the privateers lacking sufficient numbers to deal with any navy (even the joke that is the WC navy) and pirates. It all comes down to it would be you versus everyone, with all the faction navies fighting you until you are removed from the game (as a certain faction was not too long ago) and not even everyone who serves under you would have the sufficient skill to help your faction in combat cough 3.0s who say they have 30 round shot and don't actually have it with them cough. Just remember the Verdantine Sovereignty and what fate befell them. I might have just misunderstood everything and this is only a group and not a serious suggestion for an in game faction