Prize money
Prize money refers in particular to naval prize money, usually arising in naval warfare, but also in other circumstances. It was a monetary reward paid in accordance with the prize law of a belligerent state to the crew of a ship belonging to the state, either a warship of its navy or a privateer vessel commissioned by the state. Prize money was most frequently awarded for the capture of enemy ships or of cargoes belonging to an enemy in time of war, either arrested in port at the outbreak of war or captured during the war in international waters or other waters not the territorial waters of a neutral state. Goods carried in neutral ships that are classed as contraband, being shipped to enemy-controlled territory and liable to be useful to it for making war, were also liable to be taken as prizes, but non-contraband goods belonging to neutrals were not. Claims for the award of prize money were usually heard in a prize court, which had to adjudicate the claim and condemn the prize before any distribution of cash or goods could be made to the captors.
Other cases in which prize money has been awarded include prize money for the capture of pirate ships, slave ships after the abolition of the slave trade and ships trading in breach of the Navigation Acts, none of which required a state of war to exist. Similar monetary awards include military salvage, the recapture of ships captured by an enemy before an enemy prize court has declared them to be valid prizes, and payments termed gun money, head money or bounty, distributed to men serving in a state warship that captured or destroyed an armed enemy ship. The amount payable depended at first on the number of guns the enemy carried, but later on the complement of the defeated ship.
Certain captures made by armies, called booty of war, were distinct from naval prize because, unlike awards under naval prize legislation, the award of booty was only made for a specific capture, often the storming of a city; the award did not set a precedent for other military captures in the same war, and did not require adjudication by a prize court. When the British army and navy acted together, it was normal for instructions to say how any prizes and booty should be shared, and the shares allocated. In this case, combined naval and military force to be dealt with under naval prize law rules.
Although prize law still exists, the payment of prize money to privateers ceased in practice during the second half of the 19th century and prize money for naval personnel was abolished by those maritime states that had provided it at various times in the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
Origins
The two roots of prize law and the consequent distribution of prize money are the medieval maritime codes, such as the Consolato Del Mare and Rolls of Oleron, which codified the customary laws that reserved legal rights over certain property found or captured at sea, in harbour or on the shore for the rulers of maritime states, and the 16th and 17th century formulation of international law by jurists such as Hugo Grotius. These jurists considered that only the state could authorise war, and that goods captured from an enemy in war belong as of right to its monarch. However, it was customary for the state to reward those who that assisted in making such captures by granting them part of the proceeds.In various 17th century states, the crown retained from one-tenth to one-fifth of the value of ships and cargoes taken by privateers but up to half of the value of those captured by the state's navy. Grotius also recorded the practices that, for a prize to be effective, the ship must either be brought to port or retained for 24 hours, and that no distribution of prize money or goods could made without due court authorisation.
Most European maritime states, and other maritime states that adopted laws based on European models, had codes of prize law based on the above principles that allowed for monetary rewards for captures. However, details of prize money law and practice are known for relatively few of these. They include English rules from the 17th century, which formed the basis for the rules for Great Britain and the United Kingdom in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, those of France from the 17th to 20th centuries, the Dutch Republic, mainly for the 17th century, and the United States for the 18th and 19th centuries. The smaller navies of maritime states such as Denmark and Sweden, had little chance of gaining prize money because they had few opportunities to capture enemy ships in wartime, both because, after the Great Northern War, they were rarely involved in naval wars and, when they were, their fleets were much weaker than their major opponents.
Booty of war
Booty of war, also termed spoils of war is the movable property of an enemy state or its subjects which can be used for warlike purposes, in particular its soldiers' arms and equipment, captured on land, as opposed to prize which is hostile property captured at sea. It is legally the property of the victorious state, but all or part of it may be granted to the troops that capture it. In British practice, although the Crown may grant booty and to specify its distribution, this was done by a special proclamation relating to a specific capture which did not set a precedent, not a general measure dealing with all captures made during a war, as were naval prize acts. Instances of it being granted include the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799, the capture of Bordeaux, 1814 and the Siege of Delhi, 1857. Although the United States and France had allowed their soldiers to profit from booty on a basis similar to Britain, they abolished the practice in 1899 and 1901 respectively. The Third Geneva Convention now only allows the arms, military equipment and military documents of prisoners of war to be seized and prohibits the award of booty.England to 1707
of England had, from medieval times, legal rights over certain property found or captured at sea or found on the shore. These included the rights to shipwrecks, ships found abandoned at the sea, flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict, enemy ships and goods found in English ports or captured at sea in wartime and goods taken from pirates. At first, these were collectively known as Droits of the Crown, but after the creation the office of the High Admiral, later the Lord High Admiral, of England in the early 15th century, they were known as Droits of Admiralty, as the Crown granted these rights, and legal jurisdiction the property specified in them, to the Lord Admiral. This jurisdiction ceased in 1702, but the name Droits of Admiralty remained in use.Early prize law made little distinction between financial rewards made to officers and men of the Royal Navy and to privateers, as the former did not exist as a permanent force until the 16th century. Mediaeval rulers had no administrative mechanism to adjudicate prizes or collect the royal share. The first Admiralty Court in England with responsibility for prize and prize money issues was created in 1483 and subordinate Vice-Admiralty courts were later set up in British colonies. Appeal from the Court of Admiralty was to the Privy Council. As the rights over enemy ships or goods are legally prerogatives of the Crown, there are few English or British statues that deal with naval prize money, other than the prize acts issued at the start of each war, authorising the Crown to issue orders or proclamations dealing with prize money, and these acts affirm rather than limit the Crown's rights.
From Elizabethan times, the Crown insisted that the validity of prizes and their value had to be determined by royal courts, and that it should retain a portion of their value. In some cases, an English ship failing to bring a prize for adjudication was confiscated. Beyond this, it was left to the discretion of the Crown, guided by custom, as to what should be allocated to those taking prizes, and how that prize money should be allocated between the owners, the officers and the crew. Generally, the Crown retained one-tenth of the value of prizes captured by privateers. By ancient custom, the common seamen, but not the officers, of navy vessels had the right of free pillage, the seizure of the enemy crew's personal possessions and any goods not stored in the hold. The Commonwealth attempted to forbid the custom of pillage in 1652, but this rule was impossible to enforce, and the right to pillage was given statutory force after the Restoration.
Some rewards that were previously customary or discretionary for privateers became entitlements in 1643, when an ordinance passed by the Commonwealth parliament allowed them to retain any ships and goods captured after adjudication in an Admiralty Court and payment of one-tenth of the value of the prize and customs duties on any goods. A further ordinance of 1649 relating to naval ships, which applied during the First Anglo-Dutch War, entitled seamen and subordinate officers to half the value of a captured enemy warship and gun money of between 10 and 20 pounds for every gun on an enemy warship that was sunk, and one third of the value of a captured enemy merchant ship. If a captured enemy warship were repairable at reasonable cost and suitable to add to the English fleet, the Crown might buy it. However, until 1708, the purchase price was fixed by the Admiralty, whose agents were suspected of valuing them cheaply or inflating the cost of repairs. The 1643 ordinance also introduced two new measures: that part of the money not allocated to the ship's crew would go to the sick and wounded, and that English ships recaptured from an enemy were to be returned to their owner on payment of one-eighth of their value to the ship recapturing them. A further ordinance of 1650 applied these prize money rules to the capture of pirate ships.
The provisions of 1643, 1649 and 1650 on the distribution of prize money were repeated after the Restoration in the Navy Act 1661, which also expressly allowed the custom of pillage, and allowed the Lord Admiral discretion over any money or goods not allocated to the crews. The right of disposing of captured prizes and pre-emption in acquiring their goods was also retained by the Lord Admiral.