Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/45

 Besides this, however, it must be remembered that American shipowners offered greater inducements than the English then did to young men of talent and education to enter the merchant service, as the amount of wages, alone, was two- and three-fold greater in the former than in the latter. Again, the American shipmasters were, also, almost invariably admitted, nay frequently solicited by the managing owners, to take some shares in the ships placed under their command; and, in cases, where the master had no capital, the owner often conveyed to him a share of one-sixth, and sometimes even one quarter, to be paid for out of his wages and the profits of the ships. Thus young men of good position and talent were led to enter the American merchant service, and had much greater inducements than they would then have had in Great Britain to take a zealous interest in the economy, discipline, and success of the ship they commanded; and this, not merely from the fact that they were well recommended, but from the confidential and courteous treatment they received from their employers. Captains of the larger class of packets or merchant-ships, therefore, could not only afford to live as gentlemen, but, if men of good character and fair manners (which they generally were), they were received into the best mercantile circles on shore. They were also allowed, besides their fixed salary, a percentage (usually 2-1/2 per cent.) on all freights, and by various other privileges (particularly in relation to passengers) they were thus enabled to save money and to become, in time, merchants and shipowners on their own account, a custom which prevailed, to a large extent, in the New England States.