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IX.—PRIVATE  FIRMS  AND  COMPANIES.

which  they  are  employed,  an  example  may  be  found  in  the  scheme
which  has  been  in  force  since  1887  on  the  Home  Farm  of  Lady
Wantage  (about  5,000  acres  lying  between  Wantage  and  Hendred,
Berks).
The  plan  adopted  is  to  pay  rent,  interest  at  5  per  cent,  on
capital,  rates  and  taxes,  purchase  of  stock  and  other  working
expenses,  and  wages,  and  then  to  allot  a  portion  of  the  surplus
balance  as  the  share  of  the  employees,  the  remaining  profits  going
to  their  employer.  For  the  purposes  of  the  profit-sharing  scheme
the  profits  are  calculated  on  the  working,  not  of  a  single  year,  but
of  a  series  of  years.  Thus,  in  those  years  in  which  profits  are
made,  the  share  of  the  employees  is  partly  paid  over  to  them  at
once,  partly  credited  to  a  reserve  fund  which  is  available  for  the
payment  of  a  bonus,  if,  say  once  in  every  four  years,  a  bad  year
occurs  in  which  no  profits  are  earned.  The  net  balance  of  profit
earned  in  the  series  of  years  being  thus  ascertained,  the  losses
made  in  the  bad  years  being  deducted  from  the  profits  made  in.
the  good  years,  one  quarter  of  such  net  balance  goes  to  the
employees.  The  accounts  of  the  farm  are  audited  by  a
firm  of  accountants,  and  the  certified  balance-sheet  can
be  seen  by  any  employee.  “  The  bonus  is  distributed
in  shares  of  so  many  shillings  each,  the  farm  manager
getting  at  the  rate  of  ten  shares  to  one,  the  ordinary  labourers  one
share,  and  boys  half  a  share  each.”  All  male  employees  who  have
worked  on  the  farm  for  at  least  two  years  receive  bonus;  but  the
female  labourers  are  not  given  any  share  in  profits,  the  reason
given  for  their  exclusion  from  participation  being  that  most  of  the
work  which  they  do  is  piece-work.  The  number  of  persons  (of
either  sex)  employed  on  the  farm  varies  from  188  to  238.  The
number  of  employees  who,  at  December  31,  1911,  were  entitled  to
participate  in  profits,  was  147.  The  ratio  which  the  bonus  has
borne  to  the  wages  of  participants,  taking  an  average  of  the
bonuses  distributed  in  the  years  1888-1911  inclusive,  has  been
about  4‘8  per  cent.  In  regard  to  the  effects  produced  by  the
adoption  of  the  profit-sharing  scheme,  the  agent  for  the
estate  observes  as  follows:—“  I  think  the  giving  of  the  bonus
has  been  the  principal  reason  why  we  have  never  had  the  least
trouble  with  the  labourers  on  this  estate,  although  there  are  many
other  boons  for  which  they  ought  to  be,  and  are,  grateful.”

In  November,  1884,  Messrs.  Blundell,  Spence  &  Co.,  Limited,
colour,  paint,  and  varnish  manufacturers,  oil  boilers  and  refiners,
and  anti-fouling  composition  makers,  of  Hull  and  London,  adopted
a  system  of  Profit-sharing.  From  the  clear  profit  of  the  year,
i-e.,  “  the  net  amount  available  for  dividend,  reserve,  or  carrying
forward,  after  deduction  of  all  outgoings  whatever”  there  is
deducted  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  5  per  cent,  on  the  preferred,
and  6  per  cent,  on  the  ordinary  shares;  of  the  remainder  a  definite
fraction  is  devoted  to  the  payment  of  “  gratuities  ”  to  the
employees.  This  fraction  was,  under  the  original  scheme,  onetenth;
  but  under  successive  revisions  of  the  scheme  the  proportion ­
  was  raised  to  one-eighth,  and  in  May,  1912,  to  one-fifth.  Of
this  bonus  or  “  gratuity  ”  fund  the  office  staff  takes  one-sixth