Slush fund...

From David P. in W.V.

"On this day in 1635 (give or take a decade or two), the British merchant fleet learned

yet one more thing from their Dutch antecedents.

 

As you will recall from fourth Grade (yes, Sister, I promise I'm listening, put down dat

ruler please!), at about this time, the Brits, French and Spanish were busy fussing

about things like primogeniture and feudal estates or 30 year wars (give or take a

decade or two). Meanwhile, the Dutch were trading the astrolabes off everybody.

While most nations were taxing, taking, shooting and sinking other folks, the Dutch

were building ships for merchandise not munitions. In addition to promoting free

trade, free ports and building ships designed to minimize labor and increase cargo,

the wooden shoe crew knew they needed accountability….and that meant

accounting."

 

Each ship sailed with enough of an allowance to provide for the needs of the ship, the

officers and the crew during the voyage as well as for the purchase of the goods to be

brought back. Unless you are an MBA, you may have already realized that having the

most money available for purchase of goods for cargo might make you a very wealthy

captain when and if you got home safely and when and if the ship's owners whacked

the profit up with you.

 

Now even if you are an MBA, you may already realize that this might lead captains not

to be too free with money, fresh fruit and grog with the crew. In fact, the crew had

little control over anything except what they ate....er….rather how much they ate of

what was served. (Don't get tired we're almost to the point.)

 

Anyway, the English sailors introduced an entrepreneurial and democratic spin on the

rules laid down by the accountants. Since their main compensation was not set till

the end of each voyage and then only by the random price for cargo in the port when

they arrived, the sailors tried to find a way to match their efforts to their ships success.

Their provisions were mostly beans and salt pork. If you didn't eat all the salt pork on

your plate, the cook could rend the scraps down to a kind of tallow which on board

ship was called slosh or slush. The slush was used to make candles to fuel lanterns, or

to grease capstans, masts or blocks. But sailors found that some ports into which they

sailed lacked animals and thus they had little tallow or slush to make their own

candles, etc......so they would pay a premium for the slush. The money that was

gained from the sale was used by the crew for needed repairs that the bean counters

either didn't envision or wouldn't pay for. And thus, on this day (give or take a

decade or two), the special account from the slush or the "slush fund" was

established.

~~~~~

Stay safe.