Definition
Hat money is a historical maritime law term referring to a small customary payment made to the master and mariners of a ship, typically by cargo owners or merchants, in addition to agreed freight charges. The term is used interchangeably with primage in most American and English legal dictionaries.
The payment served two overlapping purposes in historical practice: (1) as a gratuity or bonus to the ship's captain and crew for the safe handling and delivery of cargo, and (2) as a specific allowance to the master for the purchase of cold-weather or winter clothing, particularly on long voyages. Burrill distinguishes these functions more carefully than other sources, noting that the clothing allowance usage — drawn from Jacobsen's Sea Laws — appeared in nearly all charter parties of the relevant period, suggesting hat money was once a term of art in contract drafting before collapsing into the broader concept of primage.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No standard entry. "Hat money" does not appear as a recognized term in contemporary general English.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not listed as a general vocabulary entry; the term existed primarily in maritime commercial and legal contexts.
Editorial note: Because hat money has no meaningful life outside maritime law and historical trade practice, the gap between common and legal meaning is not a research trap — the term simply has no common usage to confuse. Researchers encountering it in historical documents should treat it as legal jargon and cross-reference primage immediately.
Common Confusion
Hat money and primage are treated as synonyms by Black's (both editions) and Bouvier, and researchers should expect to find either term used to describe the same payment in historical sources. However, Burrill's entry introduces a subtle distinction: hat money may specifically reference the clothing-allowance form of the payment — a discrete line item in charter parties — while primage is the broader concept covering customary gratuities to masters and crews generally. Do not assume the terms are always interchangeable when reading older charter parties or cargo contracts; the specific label used may reflect the precise nature of the payment being described.
Why It Matters in Research
Hat money is a narrow but historically embedded term that appears in maritime commerce records, charter parties, cargo disputes, and admiralty proceedings from roughly the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. Researchers working in that era's admiralty records or commercial documents should be aware of three navigational points.
First, the term is time-bound. By the late nineteenth century, hat money as a distinct label had largely disappeared from American maritime practice, absorbed into the concept of primage or simply eliminated as shipping contracts became more standardized. If you encounter hat money in a document from the twentieth century, treat it as a deliberate archaism or a term carried forward from an older form contract.
Second, Burrill's reference to Jacobsen's Sea Laws is significant for researchers tracing the term's origins in civil law and continental maritime codes. The Law Merchant tradition that shaped early American admiralty law drew heavily on Dutch, French, and German sea law sources, and hat money's appearance in those charter party forms reflects that lineage. Primary research into pre-nineteenth century admiralty disputes may require consulting those continental sources.
Third, because hat money was a customary payment rather than a statutory one, its amount, enforceability, and characterization varied by trade route, port custom, and the specific terms of individual charter parties. Researchers should not assume a uniform legal rule governed its calculation.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries converge on the core definition — hat money equals primage, a small duty paid to the captain and mariners — but diverge in depth and framing.
Black's (both editions) and Bouvier offer identical, minimalist definitions that confirm the primage equivalence and nothing more. These entries are useful for confirming the term's meaning in a legal dispute but provide no historical texture.
Burrill is the most substantive source. It traces the term to the French chapot, connects it specifically to the clothing-allowance function, and cites Jacobsen's Sea Laws as authority — the only source dictionary to do so. This makes Burrill the starting point for any serious historical research into the term's origins or its role in charter party drafting. Burrill also flags that hat money was "supposed to be the same" as the modern allowance — careful hedging that signals the term's meaning was already somewhat uncertain even at the time of writing.
Notably, none of the source dictionaries addresses how courts resolved disputes over hat money in the absence of an explicit charter party provision, or whether the payment was treated as a matter of custom enforceable in admiralty independently of contract. That gap reflects the term's marginal status by the time these dictionaries were compiled.
Jurisdictional Note
Hat money as a distinct term appears primarily in English and early American admiralty law. Its practical relevance was always confined to jurisdictions with active maritime commerce courts. American federal admiralty jurisdiction would govern any dispute arising in U.S. waters, but the term's obsolescence means it is unlikely to appear in modern litigation outside of a historical contract interpretation context.