Community Capitalism and The Pequod

We can use old ideas to map a path to a brighter future.

Matt Le Tissier is to be interviewed by Professor of Biosciences Richard Ennos on the 4th of May, at South Leith Parish Church. If you cannot attend but would like to see, hear and engage with the event, then you can watch the livestream for FREE here.

Herman Melville’s great novel Moby Dick tells the story of a whaling ship captained by a daemonic personality, Captain Ahab, who has a monomaniacal obsession with the eponymous white whale, that, when previously hunted by Ahab, took his leg. The whaling ship where most of this powerfully symbolic story unfolds is The Pequod. A ship that sails out of Nantucket, the centre of the 19th Century New England whaling industry at the time.

As with many economic ventures at sea during a period which spanned centuries, the boat and all its provisions were funded by the community: each member contributed what they could to purchase a lay and would receive any profit made from the expedition which their lay entitled them to receive, similar to shares nowadays. The community supported the risk and reaped the reward in a framework that could only be successful within a larger culture of responsibility, integrity, empathy and widespread consensus.

The economic benefits of this geographically restricted underwriting went beyond a varied set of beneficiaries, including widows, farmers and seamen, all of them receiving a goodly sum; the money, because it was returned directly to the denizens of the area, was spent in the local economy thus also enriching those who did not take part in the venture for whatever reason or who had no surplus to invest. Thereby, providing a striking contrast to much of today’s returns on investments which sees your local Tesco’s profits funnelled across the globe to, usually, an already wealthy investor class. That’s wealth lost from the community.

The social good for these communities was no less marginal than the economic benefits: discussing plans, responsibility, planning, making contracts and swearing obligations, thinking about other people, corralling individual ambition for the good of everyone, love and fellowship, physically working together, are each intangible rewards to an individual and a society that no price can be put upon. The anxiety and mutual suspicion which plagues the current Age may not have been unknown in the the 19th Century, however, it would be a good deal lessened in such an environment, replaced with many of the life-affirming aspects of human relations instead.

This is the model that Common Knowledge Edinburgh seeks to emulate with our Matt Le Tissier event and, in time, hopefully beyond. The event is financed by pledges from the Common Knowledge community and, after costs, and a few designated categories, 70% of any profit will be divided-up between members, dependent on the value of their pledge (maximum pledge £100 currently). Almost no money is retained by CKE, the idea being to diffuse money as widely and fully as is possible. We don’t want to build another for-profit body enriching those on the inside. We want the community to prosper to the maximum achievable in a free, transparent, honest manner.

The attraction of this model, from our point of view, is that it pulls people together into a community of values, where all can be part of a shared endeavour. It is something that involves everyone who wishes to be a part of it; the model encourages conversation and cooperation; it relies heavily on the merits and character of the people involved, as well as incentivising the positive features of the human personality, since everyone is known to each other and a good reputation is indispensable to success; it requires a little trust and a little faith in your fellow person, with that needing to be validated and reciprocated over time. In short, it builds a community, if there is not one there already, and it consolidates and potentially enhances one already in existence.

Money, in this model, is more than just lucre: it is imbued with human values such as respect, fairness and real, authentic inclusion. The economic model is as good as the people that run it and it encourages them to be better. It won’t be perfect; it’ll still be subject to the fallibility of all human undertakings, perhaps some loquacious, eloquent, charismatic entrepreneur will persuade investors to gamble too much on a ‘certainty’ and they’ll suffer devastating losses - in Scotland, we have had that experience with the 18th Century Darien Expedition that practically crippled the country - yet that need only happen once until people learn. (We certainly won’t be doing that at CK!) It is so unlike today’s financial and investment world, where lies, ponzi schemes and financial malfeasance appear to be built into the brickwork.

A further attractive feature is the lack of limit to the model. Yes, it is funding a small, in the scheme of things, speaking event with Matt Le Tissier this time, but it could be used to fund a calendar of events, a festival; the model could purchase a cow for raw milk or a building that cannot be closed during another lockdown: it is flexible and scalable. Whatever the community is prepared to support can be done. Again, this demands those intangible human stores of value that are so vital to a constructive, happy, fulfilling life. It’s not just one individual getting rich with a culture of bosses and conformity; it can be a society of talents working together, with a stake and a voice, to empower themselves and each other to build wealth and a repository of assets that will continue to benefit all. We would want it to strengthen individualism as much as it underpins the community.

Of course, we’re not saying this is the only model. It is one of many and it can undoubtedly be refined and improved. Still, it gets the ball rolling with taking a different approach to the widespread model where egotism and manipulation infect the practices of institutions; we want something better. And if we can develop it, then we hope to keep advancing with a system that makes the world closer, warmer and more human.

Matt Le Tissier will be interviewed by Professor Richard Ennos in Leith, Edinburgh on the 4th May. Tickets are available here. It is funded by the community and any profits return to the community. Join us in resisting censorship. £20 on the door. Reductions for students and OAPs.

Common Knowledge blog posts will increase over the next couple of months as we try to promote this event.