EARNINGS AND THE LAY 221 



There are, It is true, other arrangements which resemble its 

 general principle of dividing the net proceeds of an undertak- 

 ing, in some prearranged proportion, between one set of per- 

 sons charged with the functions of management and ownership, 

 and another set whose obligation it is to provide the necessary 

 kind and amount of labor. But with this general principle 

 the resemblance ceases. For it is impossible to classify the lay 

 system under any one of the commonly recognized methods of 

 remuneration. Obviously it bears no relation to the familiar 

 time wage, or the piece wage, or the numerous variants of the 

 task and bonus system. Nor is there any resemblance between 

 it and the sliding scale, the arbitrary bonus, or labor copartner- 

 ship. Profit-sharing and gain-sharing are suggested, but 

 hardly more. Neither is there any hint of co-operation, for 

 the foremast hands possessed not even the most indirect part 

 in the functions of ownership or of management. 



Perhaps payment by means of the lay may be best described 

 as a system of product-sharing accompanied by an enforced, 

 rather than voluntary, division of risks. By placing the re- 

 muneration of the whaleman wholly upon the basis of an as- 

 signed fraction of the net proceeds of an entire voyage, the 

 whaling merchants forced their crews to share to the full the 

 risks involved in the enterprise, without allowing them the 

 slightest part in the determination of the degree of those risks. 

 The hazards of the chase and the dangers of wind and wave 

 were, of course, in the last extremity beyond human control. 

 But there remained a considerable range of risk-determining 

 factors which were amenable to conscious regulation. Such 

 were the selection of captain, mates, and seamen, the sound- 

 ness of the vessel, the adequacy of the equipment, the choice of 

 whaling-grounds, the strategy of the chase, and the business 

 judgment displayed in disposing of the product. 



In the decisions regarding these matters, however, the mem- 

 agricultural plans involve relatively small-scale, short-time, direct-bargaining 

 projects in which the number of persons is restricted to a mere handful. On 

 the other hand whaling displayed, among other significant peculiarities, long 

 periods of two to four years between settlements, heavy investments, impersonal 

 relationships between owners and large groups of seamen, an elaborately or- 

 ganized system of exploitation, and a divergence of bargaining power so wide 

 that the crews were reduced to the position of sweated labor. 



