This thesis has been designed to examine the share
system and to study its effects on innovation, employment and
income in the British Columbia salmon fishing industry. The
approach taken has been that of examining the theoretical basis
of the share system and then noting how the system has worked
in practice.
The share system has demonstrated some notable advantages
over a wage system in its approach in providing an
incentive for hard work and in the economizing of materials
used, Against these advantages must be weighed the heavy
burden of risk which is shifted from the capitalist to labour.
Share fishermen are not assured that they will earn any income
from a particular fishing trip and may, in fact, be forced to
bear part of the losses of those ventures which fail.
The share system creates a rigidity in the free movement
of resources within the fishing industry by requiring that
the net proceeds from fishing be divided between the crew and
the vessel owner in fixed proportions. The allocation to
labour of a fixed percentage of all net income results in the
entrepreneur requiring a higher rate of return on his investment
than would be the case if he were operating in a freely
competitive market, thus in theory the share system would inhibit
innovation,, The entrepreneur requires that his investment projects have a sufficient return to repay both his capital and
interest after paying a share to labour.
The number of licensed fishermen and fishing boats has
increased annually since 1951. The opportunity of obtaining a
high income which is a feature of the share system is a particular
incentive which attracts new recruits into the industry.
However, many fishermen fail to remain in the industry due to
the low and unstable earnings they experience.
The incomes of British Columbia salmon seine fishermen
appear, on the average, to be below those offered in
alternative occupations, though there are certainly some very
high incomes earned by a few fishermen0 The increased employment
both of labour and capital can, in the main part, be blamed
on the common property feature of sea fisheries. The share system,
though playing a part in the total industry, is not the
most important variable, A solution to the difficulties that
the industry faces can best be sought by changes and adjustments
elsewhere. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/42402 |
| Date | January 1963 |
| Creators | Midgley, Ian Harold |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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