Abstract During the reign of Bey Hammouda Ibn Ali (1782-1814), the Ottoman province of Tunis had reached unprecedented levels of economic growth, which led historian Charles-André Julien to describe Bey Hammouda’s reign as the “Golden Age” of Tunis. Other scholars, on the other hand, describe this period as the “Golden Age of the Tunisian Corso.” Much of Tunis’ booming economy during that period depended on the Bey’s corsairs, who, like the Tunisian merchants, played an important role in the Bey’s economic system. They were economic agents authorized by the Bey mainly to protect Tunisian commerce and their allies’ ships from their enemies. Studies on Tunisian corsairing during that period do not adequately explain the relationship sea raiding had with trade. On the other hand, studies on Tunisian trade during that period have focused either on Bey Hammouda’s political and economic reforms, the Tunisian merchants wealth, or trade activities including the trans-Saharan slave trade. My paper examines the role of corsairing and trade in Bey Hammouda’s complex political and economic reforms. And so, it will illuminate how the interplay of these activities led Tunis’ economy to prosperity in a time marked by the dislocating Napoleonic wars and also periods of significant drought in the agricultural lands of Tunis’ hinterland. Using Arabic, English, Ottoman and French diplomatic correspondences, treaties, and local Tunisian chronicles, I will trace how Bey Hammouda generated state income through his reliance on corsairing and foreign trade. By evaluating the interconnections of increased sea raiding and foreign trades, my paper will show how Bey Hammouda staved off economic disaster in a period of political and environmental instability, and so, against the odds, generated economic policies that allowed this Ottoman province in North Africa to reach unprecedented levels of economic growth.