The bookkeeping behind a giant pirate armada

What could matter most in administering a large Chinese pirate armada?

Bookkeeping and ledgers, with literacy providing a practical advantage in administration.

Bookkeeping and ledgers are proposed as the most important tools for administering a large Chinese pirate armada. They are accepted as the administrative side of logistics. A participant recalls a leader whose literacy helped her position in a fleet after marriage to its commander. Her name is deliberately left unsaid, and the chronology remains unspecified.