Did Pirates Invent Modern "Workers Compensation"

Photo: David Ball

The Freakonomics blog over at the NYTimes is a fun place. They had a post on Pirates (ie the swashbucklers of the high seas) called "Are Pirates the Key to Understanding the World?" I read some of an article by Peter T. Leeson it listed; Pirational Choice: The Economics of Infamous Pirate Practices. In it I found out that pirates of the late 17th and early 18th century used...

...an early form of workers' compensation to support crew members injured during duty. In Captain Bartholomew Roberts' pirate crew, for instance, the company's articles of agreement stipulated that "If . . . any Man should lose a Limb, or become a Cripple in their Service, he was to have 800 Dollars, out of the publick Stock, and for lesser Hurts, proportionately" (Johnson 1726-1728 [1999]: 12). Before dividing up their loot, pirate crews deducted the insurance amounts their articles identi…ed, distributed these sums to injured pirates, and then divided the rest.

I googled around for the history of Workers Compensation and found an article called "Workers' Compensation, A Brief History" by Lloyd Harger. He places the birth of modern workers' compensation laws in Germany in the early 19th century:

Germany took the lead in the protection of injured workers in 1838 by passing legislation protecting railroad employees and passengers in the event of accidents. Further changes were made in 1854 when a law was passed requiring certain classes of employers to contribute to sickness funds and in 1876 a “Voluntary Insurance Act” was passed, which failed in actual operation. Bismarck introduced a Compulsory Plan in 1881, which was enacted in stages and finalized in 1884 and is the model for our present system.

Unless someone tells me otherwise, I'm going to give cred to the swashbucklers for it! Comment if you have any more info...