36

II.—PRIVATE  FIRMS  AND  COMPANIES.

certificates  for  eight  years;  and  of  the  total  number  of  certificates
issued,  303  were  retrospective  for  eight  years  or  over,  42  for  seven
years,  81  for  six,  123  for  five,  159  for  four,  131  for  three,  99  for
two,  and  103  for  one  year.*
In  1910  the  total  amount  of  Certificates  (of  both  kinds)  was
raised  to  £214,982,  in  1911  to  £298,731.
It  may  he  mentioned  that  the  dividends  on  the  Partnership
Certificates  are  credited  to  the  persons  entitled  to  receive  them
in  a  Savings  Bank  account,  opened  for  the  purpose  in  the  Company’s ­
  books  in  1909.
The  total  number  of  persons  employed  by  Lever  Brothers,
Limited,  and  by  its  Associated  Companies  in  1911  in  the  United
Kingdom  was  over  9,000.  There  were  2,500  employed  outside
the  United  Kingdom.  Of  these,  at  the  end  of  1911,  .1,749  (1,448
in  the  United  Kingdom,  301  outside  it)  were  the  holders  of
Partnership  or  Preferential  Certificates  under  the  Scheme  above
described.
In  reply  to  the  Department’s  question  as  to  the  results  obtained
by  these  arrangements,  the  Company  writes  :  —
“  It  is  too  early  yet,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Chairman  of  the
Company,  to  speak  authoritatively  with  reference  to  the  Copartnership ­
  Scheme.  But  his  experience  is  that  with  the
majority  the  Scheme  does  increase  their  sense  of  responsibility ­
  and  loyalty  to  the  firm,  perseverance  and  assiduity  in
discharge  of  duties.  He  would  not  abandon  it,  nor  has  he
any  desire  to  go  back  to  the  days  before  the  Scheme.  If  it
were  not  in  operation,  he  would  desire  to  provide  such  a
Scheme,  and  he  does  not  think  his  experience  of  it  has  disclosed ­
  any  inherent  defects  or  any  possibility  as  far  as  this
business  is  concerned  of  very  materially  improving  upon  it.”
Bonus,  part  Cash,  part  Provident  Fund.*
An  example  of  the  type  of  Profit-sharing  in  which  part  of  the
fund  available  for  the  payment  of  bonus  is  paid  in  cash  and  the
remainder  is  credited  to  a  Provident  Fund  for  the  benefit  of  the
employees  may  be  found  in  the  scheme  of  a  large  London  firm
of  confectionery  manufacturers,  Messrs.  Clarke,  Kiel,oils,  and
Coombs,  Limited,  which  came  into  force  on  January  1,  1890.
The  arrangement  in  this  case  is  that  “  after  paying  all
salaries,  liabilities  on  agreements,  making  allowances  for  bad
debts,  and  the  usual  provision  for  depreciation  and  other  reserves,
paying  interest  on  debentures,  dividend  on  preference  shares,  and
a  dividend  at  the  rate  of  6  per  cent.t  on  the  ordinary  capital  of

*  The  Eules  of  a  profit-sharing  scheme  with  bonus  partly  paid  in  cash  partly
credited  to  Provident  Fund  will  be  found  in  Appendix  G-.,  pp.  130-133.
f  The  company  states  that  it  had  paid  10  per  cent,  on  its  ordinary  shares  for
two  years  prior  to  the  introduction  of  the  profit-sharing  scheme,  “  but  it  was
thought  wiser  to  start  dividing  profits  with  the  workpeople  after  only  6  per  cent,
had  been  paid  to  the  ordinary  shareholders.  The  directors  suggested  this  as
having  every  confidence  in  the  scheme  themselves,  they  thought,  if  the  workpeople
saw  something  tangible  within  their  grasp,  they  would  be  more  likely  to  give
it  a  fair  trial.”