Two conditions were attached to the support: shipowners had to sign a profit-sharing agreement with their crew, with whom they also had to split the allowance.
IN AN effort to rebuild New England's cod industry after the war of independence, George Washington signed a law in 1792 giving shipowners "allowances" (ie, subsidies) to offset the tariffs they had to pay on their inputs.
America in particular says countering piracy requires a joint effort by states, shipowners and other private interests, including security firms.
Negotiations between shipowners and Somali pirates fit that description well.Economists have been interested in the free-market ways of pirates for a while.
This small archipelago in the Pacific, equidistant from Hawaii, Japan and Australia, is much prized among shipowners for its light regulatory touch.Investors with long memories may feel more than a tinge of concern about some of the people involved in the latest IPOs.
Trying a new pitch Reprints Related items Shipping: The peaks and troughsJun 16th 2005Investors have noticed bigger profits, and shipowners have been cashing in with an enthusiasm that suggests they are not entirely convinced that the good times will last.
Greek shipowners, worried they could be hit by a new wealth tax, are already pulling deposits out of local banks.
Sliding charter rates are more a reflection of the eternal optimism of shipowners than a calamitous foundering of the world economy.Episodes of short-term volatility are one way that the touchiness of the index to the vagaries of supply and demand manifests itself.
Paying Finnish-level wages, which the Finnish unions and shipowners are demanding, would mean that a sailor would earn more than $2,400 a month.
But shipowners using them could face legal action in various places: their own country, the flag state of their ship, the home countries of injured crewmen, and so on.
But governments, unable to provide the naval cover the shipowners want, are one by one legalising the practice.
