11 - Normal Income: Monthly wages – Bonuses and gratuities – Personal cargo – Rising incomes – The actual payment – An incomplete cargo – Amounts withheld from stipends – Benevolent Fund

Summary

For the vast majority of employees, the financial remuneration for their employment in the Company consisted of a wage or stipend, calculated by day, week or month. Everybody who sailed on board one of the Company ships was paid by the month, and the commander was no exception. He also received a monthly stipend, the bulk of which was paid out only after the completion of a voyage. Any extra days over and above a full month were paid proportionally, calculated on the basis of a thirty-day month. The chapter about Enkhuizen showed that a part of the commander’s stipend was paid out to his family members during his absence and this could be picked up at the Oost-Indisch Huis of the Chamber concerned in the form of an advance, as a monthly letter or as a monetary transfer.

It was not the remuneration which made sailing with the Company an attractive proposition. The greatest incentive was the extra opportunities to make money which a voyage to the East offered. There were various bonuses which could be earned, depending on the length of the voyage and the route taken. Besides these bonuses, there were gratuities linked to specific achievements. These bonuses and gratuities were usually shared only by the commander and his ship’s officers, but everybody on board looked forward to taking private freight along on both the outward-bound voyage and the voyage home. The carrying of trade goods was hedged in with a plethora of rules and regulations. The higher the rank a man reached, the more goods he was allowed to take. There was strict control over these private cargoes, particularly when they were unloaded, and there was always a chance that they could be confiscated. After the completion of a voyage, a commander often had to wait a long time for his payment because, if there was the slightest doubt about deviation from the rules, his payment was postponed.

Monthly Wages

The Company prized experience. On his maiden voyage, a commander never earned the highest stipend and this had been the rule since the foundation of the Company. In the seventeenth century payment also depended on the type of ship.