American Legal History
My Wikipedia article can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_for_the_Better_Regulation_and_Government_of_Seamen_in_the_Merchants_Service

Brief introduction to source

The source I've posted below is a copy of the Act for the Better Regulation and Government of Seamen in the Merchants Service. This piece of British legislation, passed in 1729, mandated a formalized wage contract between merchants and the seamen they employed. As I describe in my article, formalized wage contracts provided various protections to both parties, either of whom could take contract disputes to Admiralty courts. The Act signalled a shift towards a free wage system in an industry that traditionally lacked formalized labor relationships. A reliance on oral agreements and customary practices of the sea had led to various inefficiencies and captain-sailor tensions in merchant voyages.

The Act can be found here (note: you will need to enter your Columbia uni/password to access it): https://www1.columbia.edu/pamacea/login.shtml?target=/sec-cgi-bin/cul/prox/ezpwebserv-ezproxy.cgi%3furl=ezp.2aHR0cDovL2dhbGVuZXQuZ2FsZWdyb3VwLmNvbS9zZXJ2bGV0L0VDQ08.Yz0xJnN0cD1BdXRob3Imc3RlPTExJmFmPUJOJmFlPVQyMjQ0NDUmdGlQRz0xJmRkPTAmZGM9ZmxjJmRvY051bT1DVzEyNDk2NjYxNiZ2cnNuPTEuMCZzcmNodHA9YSZkND0wLjMzJm49MTAmU1U9MExSSiZsb2NJRD1jb2x1bWJpYXU-&pamservice=krb&userfile=

-- DanielLennard - 10 Mar 2013

 

Navigation

Webs Webs

r1 - 10 Mar 2013 - 13:59:17 - DanielLennard
This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform.
All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
Syndicate this site RSSATOM