The second being Jack says “you’ve probably never been to Singapore” how many Caribbean pirates actually traveled that far?
The East India Company was really powerful mostly because of the European atmosphere in the beginning of the 17th century.
Ground warfare at the time was ceasing to be a source of political power and profit for the major players. Armies were composed mostly of mercenaries, and their upkeep was just too expensive juxtaposed with the service they did. Moreover, the Thirty Years War would start soon after (1618) marking a destructive, mostly unproductive and exhausting period for the European powers, including the Dutch Republic. The continuous warfare would ultimately lead to the Peace treaty of Westphalia, which was held not because any state had a formidable advantage over the other, but because continuing to fight was futile.
In the 17th century the capacity to maintain political power and sustain war came not from Continental Europe but rather from the commerce of the extra-European world. The wealth of the Dutch came almost solely from their naval trade navigation; this is where the East India Company comes into play. Founded in the very beginning of the 17th century, they expelled the Portuguese from most of their trading posts in the Indian Ocean and the Indies. The notion of the time was that wherever a state was gaining wealth through commerce, another state was losing their wealth and commerce; the war of merchants ensued. The ships of the epoch were therefore armed with cannons as you see in Pirates of the Caribbean mainly to fend off or capture other trading rivals, and because the high seas were teeming with probable dangers.
The East India Company was extremely profitable. At times it would pay up to 50% of dividends that contributed to the prosperity of the Dutch. Trading companies of that time, because of their synergies with their respective state and because of their profitable nature, acted as independent actors in the world stage making peace and making war as they saw fit. Moreover, besides acting as independent actors they had a lot of influence on political affairs as well. For example, in 1640 Portugal sued for peace, but the influence of both the East and West India Companies on the United Provinces ultimately swayed the decision to continue the war against Portugal. Indeed in those times trade was a form of war. Waging naval war was indeed more profitable and more preferable than being at peace. And the East India Company was bloody good at it.
answer to the first part I hope you can find here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/axe8bu/its_often_said_that_the_east_india_trading/
The second part of your question was addressed in an extensive thread here just a couple of months ago, with responses led by u/jschooltiger: