91 - How King Fernando organized a maritime company, and the plan he ordered to be followed in this

Summary

With many labouring to build naos and others to buy them, on account of such privileges, the king saw how by this means his country was better governed and more honourable, and its inhabitants richer and better supplied, on account of the many cargoes that were shipped. He wished to provide some way to ensure that the number of such ships would grow larger and larger, so that the various mishaps at sea might not ruin those who lost their naos in such a way, and therefore he decreed, after listening to his counsellors, that all shipowners be combined into a single company, through which all misfortunes might be remedied, and through which the shipowners would not fall into harsh poverty.

He proclaimed publicly to all that it should be done in this way. He commanded that all the decked ships in the kingdom of fifty tonéis burden and greater should be recorded in writing, by competent and reliable men, both those ships that already existed and the others that there might be later on. This was to be done in Lisbon and Oporto and in all other places where they might be. Once the day and price for which they were purchased or newly built, their value and when they were launched were recorded in books, all that these ships might earn should belong to their owners and the sailors, as had always been the custom.

Of all the profits that those ships might earn from voyages back and forth, both in freight charges and from anything else, they should pay two percent into the common fund of that company. There were to be two funds, one in Lisbon and one in Oporto, and those whom the king would put in charge of these funds would be responsible for all estimates and appraisals, so that the money kept in them should be used to buy other ships in place of those that might be lost, and for all other expenditures that might be appropriate for the good of all.