204 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



world-wide crew took one-half, and the shipowner or 'planter' took 

 the other half, of the proceeds of the voyage. But outfit, 

 tackle, and food for the voyagers and their families were 

 required, and these things were supplied by a mortgagee 

 on the security of the proceeds of the voyage. As the 

 loan was usually equal in value to one-third of the estimated 

 proceeds, the old fishing system, though nominally a half- 

 and-half system, was in reality a system of thirds, the 

 planter taking one-third, the crew a second third, and the 

 mortgagee a third third. There have been from time to 

 time variations of this scheme, as, for instance, when the 

 mortgagee owned the ship and the ' planter ' was merely 

 skipper, or when steamers were introduced. Steamers re- 

 quired more capital, squeezed out the owner-planter, and 

 obtained larger and more secure results; consequently the 

 proceeds of the fishery were divided into four parts instead 

 of three parts, and the shipowners and mortgagees absorbed 

 three-fourths instead of two-thirds. The metayer system per- 

 sisted through all these changes, and beneath every disguise. 

 From 1497 to 1910, the absence of a wage-earning class, 

 which was the characteristic of the ship-fishery, made the 

 presence of a mortgagee indispensable ; but the mortgagee 

 did not make his advances in money, nor was he repaid in 

 money, for neither he, nor the planter, nor the crew wanted 

 money, and the system dates from a period before the age of 

 money. What the crew wanted most was food and clothes 

 for their wives and children, and what the skipper wanted 

 most was food and tackle for his ship ; and food, clothes, and 

 tackle were imported. Consequently the mortgagee was an 

 importer. Again, the mortgagee was never repaid in money 

 but in seals and cod, a currency which would have been use- 

 less to him if he had not been an exporter. For the markets 

 where the seal and cod were bartered or converted into money 

 were outside Newfoundland, and Newfoundland, being a 

 country where every one produced the same things, had no in- 



