For the years 1860-70, the average annual take of herrings was only 86 crans. The average price is not stated in any tabular form, but it certainly did not amount to £1 per cran under 'the general terms' system. Thus, assuming that that portion of the herring fleet held by fishermen in debt fished its fair average of these eleven years, it will be seen that the total sum realized but barely sufficed to meet the necessary outlays of the season, and to pay interest on the capital involved
This average, however, represents the mean of success and failure. In every year a few boats fish largely in excess of the average, and a still larger number fall more or less short of it. The latter lose money, if they have money to lose. They who have none fall into debt, or into deeper debt. It is said that fully two-thirds of the fishermen are in debt, and pursue this extensive enterprise burdened with all the disadvantages of debt. Their debts range from all kinds of figures up to £300.
Still there is no such thing as truck; and payment, when payment is owing, is made in cash. In the case of men free of debt, the price, being fixed, is at once paid at the close of the fishing, or soon thereafter. In the case of men in debt, circumstances make the settlement more complicated. At the outset of his career the fisherman is desirous of standing as little as possible in debt to his curer. One or two unsuccessful seasons or seasons of but partial success quickly change his view and he becomes eager to lay as much of the burden of the fishing as possible on the fishcurer. Thus, when he wants nets, he calls on the curer to guarantee payment to the seller of nets. He gets tar, and cutch, and ropes in the same way. The curer guarantees payment of the wages, meal, and other supplies of the crew; and of the cartage of the nets, and the rent of their drying ground. All these are, of course, debited in the fisherman's account. Generally the curer pays off all those claims that require instant settlement at the close of the fishing season. If things have gone fairly well, he may make the man a payment in cash at the same time; but the final settlement of the year is postponed till Martinmas, when, if cash is owing, it is paid. If no balance accrues to the fisherman, his account is handed to him; and if he is a crofter, or a reliable man the curer advances to him £12 or £20, to pay his rent and tide him over the hard times in winter. Sometimes the curer assists his fishermen debtors by supplies of meal for their families in winter, the meal being procured by the curer's orders to millers or meal dealers.
It is tolerably certain that the curer receives an abatement or discount from the merchant's prices of the meal, goods, ropes, nets, or other things which the fishermen procure on his guarantee. But sometimes the guarantee is an open one, with which the fisherman goes to any merchant he chooses making the best bargain he can.
Thus the basis of the system in this, the herring-fishing, is also mainly one of cash payments. On the first relation of it, too, it seems a system conducted in very liberal ways, inasmuch as the fish-curers are prompt to supply the capital, or the boat and materials equivalent to the capital, needed by the fisherman, and to pay him promptly the whole profits. But this, a thing unusual in ordinary commercial dealings, lays the system open to suspicion; and it is, in fact, highly objectionable, and replete with hard and injurious consequences to the fishermen. Take an ordinary case. A fisherman has made a lucky fishing with an old boat, and finds himself at the end of the year clear of debt, or near to that fortunate condition. He has for years used the old boat, as he knows, at a serious disadvantage, for the old boat and defective gearing are insufficient to carry the fisherman twenty or more miles from shore nightly, and at such distances the shoals of herrings often are. His curer will give him a boat one year old, and he takes it, agreeing to pay for it what it originally cost the curer. If the old boat is worth anything, the curer will take it in part payment. But thus the fisherman at once becomes debtor in a £100 or thereby, and bound to fish on 'general terms.' He has probably been so bound all his fishing career. In the same way, a fish-curer will readily trust a boat to a smart young fisherman wishing to start on his own account. Of course, the curer takes care that he has power by writing to seize the boat again, if necessary for his security.
It is commonly calculated that few men fish over 100 crans of herrings oftener than in one season out of five and all the chances are that our fisherman will do little to reduce his debt for some years to come. If the price is not paid by a lucky fishing in the first year, but runs unpaid to a second or third, the curer generally charges the man with deal for the boat, £10 or £14 as may be, and this year after year; so that, when at last the price is paid, and the fisherman gets free, the boat has actually cost him £150 or more. This, however, only occurs with fish-curers who are of a lower class than the most respectable. The leading men in the trade generally credit the sums paid as deal in the final settlement of the boat's price.
The probabilities are that the fisherman will increase the debt year after year, for some years. Then the curer takes from him a sale-note of the boat and of his drift. The boat is beached, so as to preserve the curer's right to it. The nets are sent to his store. The generosity of the original transaction disappears. It is, of course, understood that the boat and nets may be redeemed; but in many cases interest is added to the debt year after year, the deal is always charged for the boat, and the fisherman loses about 20 per cent. of his earnings by the 'general terms.' The sense of failure operates injuriously on the man, perhaps makes him negligent. He finds the curer disinclined to increase the debt by an additional advance of money just when money is most necessary to him for subsistence, and things go on from bad to worse. At last his year of luck comes round. He fishes 100 or 120 crans, perhaps 200 crans. His debt is reduced so as to be fairly less than the value of the boat and drift. Then he may go on for another course of the same risk and indebtedness. But not unfrequently the curer at this juncture closes the transaction by retaining and appropriating the boat and drift, and dismissing the man. The appropriation is made not seldom without any valuation of the property, and the man is dismissed without discharge or balancing of the debt.
The disadvantages of this system to the fishermen are apparent,
and are really very great.
The disadvantages of the fishermen are the advantages of the fish-curers. But these advantages are not wholly unmixed. The fish-curer has not only in the majority of cases to find the boats and nets, but to disburse all the charges of the fishing where the proceeds of the catch are insufficient to do it, and 'to keep on' the fishermen by advances for their food and rents. Thus the aggregate of the debts is a continual strain on the curer's capital, and payment is as uncertain as the chances of fishermen individually getting extraordinary hauls of fish. There is still further the risk of the debtor dying, in which event the debt is wholly lost beyond the value of the boat and nets. On the death of a fish-curer recently, his books were found to contain about £16,000 of debts due to him by fishermen, and these for the most part valueless. Still, if the system were not advantageous to the curers, it is plain that they would not conduct their trade in so questionable a method.
The fisherman's profits in good years are swallowed up by the charges and drawbacks of bad and indifferent years, unless happily there be for him a succession of good years. But, considering how little the average value of the fishing exceeds the actual outlays of the year, it is not surprising that this great fishing should be carried on under a mass of debt, spread over fully two-thirds of the fleet. It is unquestionably a national misfortune that any great enterprise like the Caithness herring-fishing should be conducted under such serious disadvantages, and with such unfortunate results to the large and adventurous class of men who labour in it.
These results are mainly owing to the great error of the fishermen in accepting the use of capital on terms unreasonably to their own disadvantage, standing debtor for the whole charges of the fishing, and submitting to the large deduction of 20 per cent. on the value of their fish. But they do it with their eyes open; and it is of contract, partly expressed and partly understood, and regulated by local custom. If it were desirable to regulate the arrangements of the trade by Act of Parliament, and if it were provided (1) that no person could advance money or money's worth to a fisherman, with the view of engaging in or equipping him for the fishing, without thereby constituting himself a partner of the fisherman, to the extent of such advance, proportionately to the value of the boat, drift of nets, etc. possessed by the fisherman and used in the fishing, and becoming liable as such partner for a proportional share of the charges of the fisherman's adventure, and (2) that the custom of fixing the price 'by general terms' be abolished; the trade would, it is thought, soon revert to legitimate methods of dealing. The real capitalist would share the risks and generally engross them; while the labour and zeal of the individual fisherman, who may have only his labour and zeal to give, would find their value in wages or other remuneration. But it is not to be denied that any such legislation would be extremely arbitrary and indefensible in principle.
It should here be stated that what the fishermen earn in white-fishing, and in the winter and Lewis herring-fishing, is always paid in cash, irrespective of the debt resting owing in respect of the Caithness herring-fishing. The individual debtor of the herring-fishing is lost in the five, six, or eight joint-adventurers who man the boats in the fishings first mentioned.
The men who hire themselves as boatmen for the herring-fishing season bargain for wages to be paid in cash at the end of the season. These wages vary from £4 to £8, according to the skill or strength of the boatman. Besides the money wages, these men have lodgings and cooking of their food supplied to them, and each receives a stone of meal weekly. The money wage is payable at the close of the fishing, and is always paid in cash. The number of men so employed is about 4000 at Wick alone.
These men make their engagements with the boatmasters, who, as already stated, are ostensibly owners of the boats. They used to experience much hardship by the failure of the boatmasters to pay them in bad years. To enforce payment was difficult, for the fish-curers were invariably found to be the owners of the boats and nets, the sole possessions of the boatmasters. This has come to be remedied to a great extent by the men refusing to engage without receiving a guarantee for payment by the curer.
With regard to coopers, they are engaged for terms longer or shorter, to make barrels at current wages or rates, and payments are fortnightly and always in cash.
The women employed in gutting and curing the herring are engaged for the season. They are paid 6d. per barrel, and 1s. 3d. a day for repacking and filling up the barrels. 1500 of them may be employed. The payments are made in cash at the end of the season.
Thus it will be seen that the whole business of the Caithness fishings is based on cash payments; and if it were not for the specialties of the herring-fishing, the whole would be sound and equitable. These specialties operate so extensive an injury, that they well merit the attention of the Legislature.
It remains to be noticed that the inducements to engage in the herring-fishing under all the disadvantages set forth are very great. It has all the precarious and enticing character of a lottery. Every year a few lucky men fish large hauls, exceeding £200 in value in the brief fishing season. As a rule, fishermen marry young; and how can the young fisherman so easily procure the means or chance of livelihood as by accepting the boat and nets which the curer so readily offers? But, apart from any such special prompting, our fishermen, essentially venturous, all too eagerly incur the debt and risk a life of indebtedness for the chance of winning the comparative comfort to which a few, a very few, of their class attain. I know of no class requiring protection from their own recklessness in these contracts more than do the fishermen of Caithness.
UYEA SOUND, 1
Meal is the great demand of the island, besides tea, tobacco, etc. I heard great complaints of the price of the meal, but I needed none. They said the bere-meal cost about 20s. a boll, but they did not know the precise price till settling day, once a year or two years. Then they had to pay whatever Mr. Bruce chose to name, after it was all eaten. He kept off the price from that of their fish; and there too, they had to take whatever he named. I found from an Orkney newspaper that bere-meal was selling there at 13s. a boll. As the meal was bought with their own money, and the price of their own fish of last year, I suppose a penny letter could order 100 bolls, shipped at Aberdeen or Kirkwall; the price of carriage to Lerwick would be, say 6d. a boll; then conveyed to Fair Isle in Mr. Bruce's own vessel, with a reasonable freight would clear about one thousand per cent. on the actual outlay or he would pocket £30 for a penny letter.
The people 'were restricted (as you say you have been informed) to buy from any one else, both by word and writing, and by the fact that they had nothing to pay it with till July last from 1869-1871. Mr. Bruce tried to establish a complete monopoly, but he did not altogether succeed. Others came and undersold him vastly, though even they were VERY DEAR, and would not sell above high- water mark. Every time any one came to the island to sell tea, sugar, coffee, soap, etc., it was reported that any one buying from such would get their warning to leave the island—the grand and only punishment known there. Of course, they all bought more or less secretly or openly and none were turned away I was at first astounded to find they did not believe a word I said, and I soon learned not to believe a word they said. I don't mean all were liars alike, but only a stranger can't tell whom to trust.
One seller came three times to the island that summer(1870)
and took away a good deal of money and goods each time. I
bought bread, sugar, fowls, etc, for Mr Bruce's laws did not apply
to me Good sugar 6d. a pound, would have cost 5d. and 51/2d.
in Glasgow. Soap equally cheap, I was told. Bread 2d. above
Kirkwall price,
As to the fish, the people complained that they got 9d. a cwt. less than those at Sumburgh for the same fish; their prices varying from 2s. 6d. to 3s., about 25 per cent. below the same article twenty-four miles distant, so that £75 would pay as much fish there as £100 at Sumburgh. If the Sumburgh fishermen complain you may guess what the islanders will do if they dare speak out. I am told the Unst fishermen have got this year 8s. a cwt. for cod and ling — the cod-fish of Fair Isle are bought at half-price. When I was there for my furniture in July last I asked for curiosity, what they got for their fish as Mr. Bruce was there settling. They said 2s. 9d. and 3s. that would be 5s 6d. and 6s. for cod. Now 6s. is to 8s. as £75 is to £100. If the fish are not paid till a year or two after they are delivered, the only capital required is the outlay for salt; and I should think £20 of salt should serve £200 of clear profit on the fish — equal to 1000 per cent. on the outlay as
You may think their plots of ground are let cheap with a view to
profit on the fish. The reverse is the fact. The price of land there
is nearly double that of the lots I have priced in Sutherlandshire
and the rest of Shetland The land is the source of the people's
IV.—EXTRACT FROM LETTER BY WM. MOUAT, ESQ. OFGARTH, ADVOCATE, TO MACCULLOCH, AUTHOR OF 'THEHIGHLANDS AND WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND'(DISCOVERED AMONGST THE GARTH PAPERS IN MARCH1872).
<2d November> 1820. . . . With regard to the points in question, I think, if I can make myself understood, I should be able to satisfy you; but our mode of holding, or rather of describing property, is so different from anything practised either in England or Scotland, that I suspect it will be necessary to take a very elementary view before I can be sure of succeeding.
In the first place, then, there are no
In the second place, you are mistaken in supposing that tenants
pay no rent for the scattholds. Every township its own scatthold,
the boundaries of which are, or ought to be, known. I say 'ought
to be,' because I believe in many instances a knowledge of the
marches has been lost. Any scatthold, therefore, is common
merely as respects the township to which it belongs; and it is the
exclusive property of the owners of that township, or, more strictly
speaking, forms a part of the township itself. Each township
consists of a certain number of merks. The following history of
the origin of this term (which is our universal denomination of
land, both in letting it to tenants and in conveying it from one
proprietor to another) may help to explain its nature. It seems,
then, to have arisen in the times when rents were fixed by public
authority, each township being valued,
I do not, however, allege that the rent thus paid is anything like what it might easily be under a better system.
That the rents were anciently fixed by public authority, is, I believe, an established fact, and there is reason to believe that the practice continued long after the transference of this country from Norway to Scotland, when, of course, it ceased to be law. This practice, and the long period for which both rents and improvements were stationary, had produced so strong an impression upon our habits of thinking on this subject, that, at so late a period as to be distinctly within my own recollection, landlords, in general, had no clear practical confidence in their own right to demand a direct rise of rent, and, under this feeling, resorted, in many instances, to indirect methods of doing that which they had a right to have done openly and avowedly. The sight of this sort of thing, without an understanding of the circumstances and habits of thinking which lie to it, gave superficial observers an idea that much oppression and injustice was exercised towards the tenantry, and produced much of that obloquy (some of which may possibly have fallen in your way) which has been thrown upon the Shetland landholders.
This idea has now, however, completely vanished, and many Shetland proprietors have let their lands at a raised money rent, without reserving any further claim upon the tenants: and if all have not done so, it arises from other causes, and not from any feeling of the kind described above, or from any inclination to take undue advantages.
As to your question why the scattholds remain undivided, the general backwardness of improvement, and want of agricultural skill and capital, are the immediate causes. The present tenantry are so ignorant of the means of turning these commons to any proper account, that the fee-simple of most of them would, under the present management, hardly pay a common land-measurer for surveying them, far less could they bear any litigation. There are, however, many considerable scattholds at present the exclusive property of one or a few persons. Improved management has begun, and will probably take root, first in such situations, and afterwards, when its advantages are seen, and a sufficient number of people trained to practise it has arisen, it will spread over those lands where the difficulty and expense of divisions have to be previously incurred. Your alternative of levying a rent of so much per head of beasts pasturing, would not answer, because, as I have already endeavoured to explain, the tenants, in paying a rent per merk, pay for their scattholds as well as for their other ]and. Your other suggestion, however, numerically limiting the stock according to the rent, or, which is the same thing, according to the moths, would be highly beneficial both to tenants and landlords. If you ask, Why then is it not carried into effect? I can only answer that we have not long turned our attention the way of agricultural improvement, and have only begun to discover that what is difficult is not always impossible.
V. — EXCERPT FROM REPORT OF MR. PETERKIN, GENERAL INSPECTOR OF BOARD
SUPERVISION OF THE POOR IN SCOTLAND.
'I do not pretend to be able to offer any suggestions to remedy such a state of matters, but too rely state the facts as they have come under my observation. I have, however, no doubt that the poors' rates in Shetland are, to a great extent, but the natural results of such parochial arrangements as I have referred to.'
Year Ling Cod Tusk Saith 1853 £20, 10s. £18 £20. 10s. £10. 10s. 1854-5 …. …. …. …. 1856 …. £15 …. £11, 10s. to £12 1857 £21 to £22 £18 to £17 £19, 5s. £12, 10s. 1858 £21, 10s. £16, 10s. …. £12 1859 £20 to £22 £15, 10s. …. £10 to £11 1860 £19 to £21 £17. 15s £20 £13 1861 £18 to £17, 10s. £17, 10s. £18 £12 to £13 1862 £17 to £18 £15 to £16 £17 £8, 10s. 1863 £18 to £20, 10s. £18 £20 £9 1864 £18 to £21 £17 to £19 £21, 5s. £12 1865 £23 to £24 £21 to £22 £23 £15 1866 £23 to £25, 10s. £19 to £23 £24 £13, 10s. 1867 £17 to £18 £16 £17 £7 1868 £18 to £19 £16 …. …. 1869 £20 to £20, 10s. £17 £18, 10s. £11 1870 £21, 10s. to £22 £18 £20 …. 1871 £22, 10s. to £24 £20 …. £13, 10s.
Priced per ton
VII.—ABSTRACTS OF SETTLEMENTS PRODUCED BY MR. GARRIOCK.
1. ABSTRACT of SETTLEMENT with FAROE FISHERMEN by GARRIOCK & CO.
Vessel Earning Paid in Lines, Clothes,Cash Hooks Meal, etc.,and Stores for Self andused on FamilyBoard'Mizpah' 1870. £585 2 1 £374 13 6 £81 7 11 £129 0 8'Mizpah' 1871. £328 19 11 £198 9 7 £63 3 4 £67 7 0'Sylvia' 1870. £427 19 2 £239 17 0 £71 7 9 £16 4 5
2. ABSTRACT OF SETTLEMENT with CREWS of FISHERMEN at DALE and WALLS — Season 1871.
Name of Crew Gross Earning Lines, Nets, Salt, Meal, and Goods Amount paid in Cash <6-oared boats> James Twatt and crew £66 8 6 £16 4 4 £50 4 2 John Jeromson and crew 88 16 111/2 18 4 4 70 12 71/2 Wm. Jameson and crew 74 11 11 36 12 11 37 19 0 Fraser Henry and crew 100 0 41/2 20 1 61/2 79 18 10 Thomas Laurenson and crew 100 2 7 27 14 6 72 8 1 Jacob Christie and crew 96 6 6 15 2 71/2 81 3 101/2 36 men Total £526 6 10 £134 0 3 £392 6 7 <4-oared boats> Scott Williamson and crew £21 2 11/2 £9 8 91/2 £11 13 4 Chas. Williamson and crew 33 2 11/2 19 16 81/2 13 5 6 William Smith and crew 21 17 7 10 2 31/2 11 15 31/2 Jas. Tait and crew 34 3 41/2 7 19 21/2 26 4 2 Geo. Georgeson and crew 16 0 7 …. 16 0 7 Thomas Moffat and crew 18 15 41/2 4 14 81/2 14 0 8 Magnus Thomson and crew* Thos. Thomson and crew* Mat. Thomson and crew* 158 11 0 42 18 9 115 12 3 34 men Total £829 19 1 £229 0 81/2 £600 18 41/2
* 4 boats with 3 men each = 12 men
Earning Goods, etc. Cash 36 men in six-oared boats, each £14 12 5 £3 14 5 £10 17 11 34 men in four-oared boats, each £8 18 7 £2 15 103/4 £6 2 81/4
Minutes of Evidencetaken before theCommission on the Truck System(Shetland)
Lerwick: Monday, January 1, 1872.Mr Guthrie, Commissioner.
Lerwick, January 1, 1872. CATHERINE WINWICK, examined
1. You live in Lerwick?-Yes.
2. You are in the habit of knitting for Mr. Linklater?-Yes.
3. For any one else?-No.
4. Do you supply your own wool?-No.
5. Where do you get it?-I knit Mr. Linklater's own worsted.
6. Do you get a supply of it at his shop?-Yes.
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7. Do you pay for it when you get it?-No; he pays me for the knitting.
8. Are you paid in money?-Some in money and some in goods.
9. What is your system of dealing? When you go with anything you have knitted to Mr. Linklater's shop, do you put a price upon it?-No; he gives what he thinks right.
10. He puts the price upon it?-Yes.
11. Does he pay you that price usually in money?-Part in money and part in goods. He does not pay all in money.
12. Do you keep a pass-book with him?-No.
13. Do you get all the money you want?-I always get what money I ask for; but I never ask for all in money. I have asked for a few shillings in money, and I have always got it.
14. Why did you not ask for the whole in money?-Because he was not in the habit of giving all money for his knitting.
15. Do you mean that you knew if you had asked for it you would not have got it?-I don't think I would have got it all in money; I never asked him for it all, but I always got what I asked for. If I asked him for a few shillings of money, he always gave it to me.
16. Is a settlement always made when you bring your work back?-Sometimes it is, and sometimes not perhaps sometimes I have something in his hands to get, and perhaps sometimes I am due him a little.
17. Due him for what?-For anything. Perhaps he might give me something sometimes when I did not have it to get, if I asked him for it.
18. Did you ever wish to buy your goods at any other place?-No; I could not buy my goods at any other place.
19. Were you always content with what you got?-Yes; I was always content.
20. Then if you wanted money, it would be for some other purpose, such as paying rent?-Yes.
21. Or for provisions?-Yes.
22. And you always got what you wanted for these purposes?- Yes. When I asked for a few shillings of money for knitting, I always got it.
23. Do you live by yourself?-Yes.
24. And not in family with any others?-No.
25. Do you make all your living by knitting?-Yes.
26. You have no other means of getting money to pay your rent?- No.
27. You pay rent for a room?-Yes.
28. And you have always got enough from the employer to whom you sell your work to pay your room rent and your food?-Yes. It had to be enough, for I could not get anything else.
29. Do you mean by that, that you would have liked to have had more money to spend upon food?-Yes.
30. But you could only get goods?-Yes.
31. How much do you earn by knitting in a week or in a month?-I suppose perhaps about 10s. in a month. I would knit a shawl in a month, and the merchant would allow me that sum for knitting it.
32. Would it take you a month to knit a shawl, working at nothing else?-Yes. Of course I would not be always at it. People cannot sit and knit continually; but it would take a month to make it, working in an ordinary way.
33. When you take that shawl to the shop, price of say 10s. is put upon it, how much of that do you got in money, and how much in goods?-I have knitted a shawl for 10s, and I have got 5s. in money on it from Mr. Linklater.
34. Is that the usual proportion of money you get?-No, not always. Sometimes I don't get so much as that.
35. Did you ever ask for more?-No; I think never asked for any more on one shawl.
36. Supposing you were going with a shawl of that value what goods would you get? Take the last time you went, for instance: what did you get?-Cottons, or such things as I would be requiring. The last time I was there I bought nine yards of cotton at 81/2d. a yard.
37. Was that to make a dress with?-No; it was white cotton.
38. Did you ask for that?-Yes.
39. Did you want it for any particular purpose?-Yes; I wanted it.
40. What else did you get?-That is all I remember getting at that time.
41. Did you get the rest in money?-Yes.
42. Have you any reason to complain of the quality of the goods you get?-No, I have not.
43. Would you wish to go to any other shop if you got money?-I have no reason to leave Mr. Linklater, for he has always given me money as well as I could have got it from any other merchant, I believe.
44. What arrangement do you make about the supplying of the wool?-We make no arrangement.
45. Then you are supplied with the wool; and the 10s. is the price not of the shawl, but of your work upon it?-Yes.
46. Is that the usual way in which the knitting trade is carried on by the women in Shetland?-Yes.
47. Do they generally get the wool supplied to them that way?-I believe they do. At least it is the way with some of them. They won't want it.
48. They don't buy the wool themselves?-They are not able to buy the wool.
49. Have you worked for other merchants than Mr. Linklater?- No; only for him. I have knitted a few things for a lady, but I never knitted to any other merchant than Mr. Linklater.
50. Then you don't know how the other merchants deal with the women who knit for them?-No; I cannot say anything about that.
51. Would you prefer to sell your goods to a private lady, or to a stranger counting to Shetland, rather than have to take them to a merchant?-If I could get all money for them, I would prefer that. 52. Supposing there was a merchant here who paid for goods altogether in money, would you prefer to take your hosiery to him?-Yes; if I could get all money, I would prefer that.
53. Is there no such person?-No; there is no such person here as that. A lady may buy a thing or two at a time, and give money for them, but that could not be a general thing.
54. How do you know that you cannot got money from the merchants? Is it because you have attempted to get it, or simply because you have a sort of understanding to that effect?-The merchants don't allow all money for the knitting.
55. Have they told you that?-Yes.
56. Who has told you?-Just the whole of them. None of them pay wholly in money for anything.
57. But who has told you that? I think you said you had never been refused?-I never was refused a few shillings on anything by Mr. Linklater. When I took home work to him and asked him for a few shillings of money, I always got it.
58. But you would rather have it all in money?-Yes.
59. And you cannot get it?-No.
60. How do you know that?-They won't give it to us. If we buy worsted ourselves, and knit the work, and take it to them, they won't give any money at all.
61. Have you tried that?-Yes.
62. You have knitted a shawl with your own worsted, and gone to them to sell it; and they would not allow money on it?-Yes.
63. Has Mr. Linklater done that?-Yes.
64. Did he refuse to give you money for that shawl?-Yes.
65. But he would pay for the shawl in goods?-Yes, if I would sell it.
66. When did that happen?-I could not just remember the time; but it has been often.
67. You did that yourself?-Yes, I have done that myself; and I have got shawls from friends to sell, and have gone out with them, and the merchants would not give money on them.
68. Is there anything else you want to say?-No.
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Lerwick, January 1, 1872, JANET IRVINE, examined.
69. Do you live in Lerwick?-Yes.
70. Your mother is a widow?-Yes.
71. Do you support yourself by knitting?-Yes; and partly by working outside at the fish.
72. What have you to do with the fish?-I help to cure them in the fish-curing establishment.
73. For whom do you knit?-Sometimes for myself, and sometimes for Miss Mary Hutchison.
74. Is she a dealer in hosiery?-Yes; she knits shawls herself, and sends them south.
75. Is she an agent?-Yes.
76. For whom?-I think she is agent for Mr. White, in Edinburgh.
77. Do you sometimes work for others?-No; not very often. I sometimes work for myself when I have any time. I knit a veil or a necktie, but in the summer 1 have not much time for that.
78. Do you knit these things for the purpose of selling them?- Yes.
79. Do you sometimes sell to the merchants in Lerwick?-Yes.
80. To whom?-To any one who is buying anything.
81. Do you generally get money for your shawls?-No; I got money from Miss Hutchison when I ask for it.
82. Do you get the price all in money from her?-When I want it all in money, I get it all in money, and when I want any other thing, she gives it to me.
83. Do you generally ask for it all in money from her?-Yes; I generally ask for it in money, because that is the only way we have to get it.
84. Does she deal in goods?-No. She generally brings home a little tea.
85. Does she only deal in tea?-In nothing else, so far as I know.
86. Then you sometimes get payment from her in tea?-Yes. When I ask it, I get it; but when I ask money, I get money.
87. When you sell to the merchants in Lerwick, do you get payment in money?-No; I never asked it, because I know they would not give it to us, as it is not the custom. They do not give it here.
88. Do you get part of it in money?-No; I get no money.
89. You have to take it all in goods?-Yes.
90. Do you prefer to get it in goods or in money?-I would like to get money if I could; but I can't get it.
91. And Miss Hutchison is not always ready to buy, from you?- No; she does not buy anything but her own. She brings home worsted, or buys worsted here, and I get it from her to knit.
92. What you sell to the merchants you knit with your own worsted?-Yes.
93. Where do you buy your worsted?-From the shops.
94. Which shops?-I used to buy from Mr. Brown, but he is not alive now; and I buy from Mr. Sinclair.
95. Do you pay ready-money for your worsted when you buy it?- Yes.
96. Do you not get worsted from the shops to knit into articles for the merchants?-No.
97. You sell to the shops only when Miss Hutchison has not got work for you?-Yes. It is only when I have it of my own that I sell to the shops.
98. Have you asked for money instead of goods at any of the shops?-No; I never asked for it.
99. Your sister also works in the same way?-Yes; she knits, but she does not work outside. She is not here to-day.
100. When was the last time you took anything of your own knitting to a shop to sell? Was it long ago?-No; it is not long,- perhaps about two or three weeks ago.
101. What was it?-A necktie.
102. Where did you take it?-I took it to Mr. Sinclair's. I could not get it sold that night, because he was not in, and the servants could not take it in his absence. I took it home with me.
103. What did you do with it?-The woman who dressed it sold it for me at Mr. Sinclair's. She generally dresses things, and sometimes sells them for me.
104. What is dressing?-Getting them sorted for sale. After being knitted, they are washed and dressed and starched.
105. Do you give the woman who dresses the articles a commission to sell them?-Yes; she sells them for me.
106. Why is that?-Because she is generally in the way of doing it. She can do it better than I can.
107. Do you mean that she can make a better bargain?-She dresses goods for the merchants, and sometimes she sells them too. She sold that article for me.
108. Who is the woman?-Mrs. William Arcus; she lives at the Docks.
109. What was the price put upon that necktie which she sold?- Eighteenpence.
110. What did you get for it?-I just got anything I required.
111. What did you require at that time?-I got a little tea, and the rest in cotton.
112. Did you want the tea?-Yes.
113. Have you sometimes asked the merchants for goods which they would not give you?-No.
114. When you go to a merchant to sell a shawl, can you get any kind of goods you want?-I don't sell any shawls, because I don't have any of my own. I have not had any of my own for a long time.
115. But when you go to sell any of the goods you have knitted, can you get anything you want?-I cannot get money, but I can get anything else, except worsted. They won't give it.
116. Will they not give you worsted for your knitted goods?-No. They won't give it for the hosiery. They want money for the worsted.
117. Do they give any reason for that?-I don't know. They say it is a money article.
118. Does that mean ready-money?-Yes.
119. It is cotton or tea you generally get?-Yes; or any other small thing except money. We can get anything except it.
120. You work at other things; so that I suppose you have money from your wages in the fish-curing establishment for the purpose of paying your rent, and things that you must pay in money?-Yes.
121. You get your wages there in money?-Yes; I get money for that.
122. You work for Mr. Leask?-Yes.
123. He does not keep a store of any kind?-No; he has no store, but he keeps a shop.
124. Have you to take goods for your wages there?-No; I can either get money or goods, whichever I want.
125. But what do you do in point of fact? Do you take money or do you take goods from Mr. Leask's shop?-I take money.
126. Always?-Not always. I take other things too, because they keep everything there that is required.
127. You have no complaint to make about that?-No.
128. You are quite content to go to Mr. Leask's shop for what you want?-Yes.
129. When you buy things there, you pay your money across the counter?-Yes.
130. You have got that money from the pay-clerk previously?- Yes.
131. Where is that money paid to you?-In the shop.
132. In which shop?-In Mr. Leask's shop. We get it in the office, and we pay it in the shop. He has two shops there.
133. Is the office at the Docks?-No; it is in the town.
134. Are you expected to go to Mr. Leask's shop when you get your wages?-No; we can go anywhere we like.
135. How long in the year do you work for Mr. Leask?- Sometimes, when the vessels get fish early, we begin soon. We begin in the spring.
136. Will you work there for six months?-Some [Page 4] times longer. We sometimes begin in spring, and work until after Martinmas.
137. During all that time you won't do much knitting?-No.
138. But you get your wages every week?-Yes.
139. How much do you get?-1s. a day.
140. And that is paid weekly on Saturdays at the office?-Yes.
141. Do you take that money home?-Yes; what I don't pay away.
142. You perhaps want something on the Saturday, and go into the shop for it?-Yes; what I want I go into the shop for.
143. How much of it do you generally take home after making your purchases?-I cannot say.
144. As a general thing, do you spend the half of it in the shop?- Yes; I spend the half of it.
145. Every week?-No; sometimes it is more, and sometimes less.
146. Have you ever been told that you ought to go to the shop?- No.
147. Or that you are expected to go there?-No.
148. Would you still be employed there in the same way although you went and bought your goods elsewhere?-They don't bid any of their people buy out of the shop. They just please themselves. Mr. Leask just gives the money, and he does not care where you buy from.
Lerwick, January 1, 1872, Mrs. CHRISTINA WILLIAMSON, examined.
149. You are a widow, and live in the Widows' Asylum in Lerwick?-Yes.
150. Are you in the habit of knitting goods for sale?-Yes.
151. Do you knit for any particular merchant?-No; I knit for myself.
152. Do you buy your own wool?-Yes; I generally get wool, and get a woman to spin it for me.
153. Who is that woman?-Mrs. Irvine, Burn's Close.
154. Is that the mother of the last witness?-Yes.
155. Do you buy the wool from a farmer?-Yes.
156. And then you knit it for yourself, and take the shawls and sell them?-Yes.
157. Do you do that upon an order, or just upon chance?-Just upon chance.
158. Who do you generally sell to?-I have some unsold just now. The last one is unsold.
159. How long have you had it?-I have had that one lying for a twelvemonth.
160. Why don't you sell it?-Because I can't get money for it.
161. Who have you asked to buy it?-I have asked none lately.
162. Who have you asked at all?-I have asked no one in the town.
163. Why do you know you would not get money?-Because it is not the custom to give it, and therefore did not ask it.
164. Have you ever asked money for your shawls?-Yes; often.
165. From whom have you asked money?-I have asked it from the whole of the merchants in the town, but they are not used to giving money.
166. Who are the merchants in the town?-Mr. Sinclair and Mr. Tulloch, and Mr. Laurenson.
167. Are these all you remember?-Yes.
168. Have you sold any shawls to any of these gentlemen lately?- Yes; I sold one to Mr. Laurenson about three months ago.
169. What was the price put upon it?-30s.
170. Was that what you call fine knitting?-Yes.
171. How were you paid for it?-I got goods for it.
172. Did you get no money at all?-No.
173. Did you ask to get some of it in money?-No; I did not ask that.
174. Did you want to get the goods?-Yes; because the goods suited.
175. What goods did you get?-I got bread.
176. Does Mr. Laurenson sell bread in his shop?-Yes.
177. Was there an account run for that?-Yes.
178. What else did you?-Just all kinds of things I was using.
179. Was it all provisions that you got?-No; there was light and plenty of things.
180. Any clothes?-No clothes.
181. Was there any account due before you sold that shawl?-No.
182. Did you get all these goods away with you at the time?-No; I just ran an account for them.
183. Have you got a pass-book?-I have got one, but I don't have it with me.
184. Was that pass-book going on with Laurenson before you sold him the shawl?-No; it just commenced when I sold the shawl.
185. Does that account still continue?-Yes.
186. Do you remember how much it comes to now?-No; I don't remember exactly.
187. Do you live in the Widows' Asylum?-Yes.
188. Are you not provided for there?-No.
189. You have to get your own food?-Yes.
190. You got what you wanted on that occasion from Mr. Laurenson?-Yes.
191. Have you sold anything to him since then?-No.
192. Have you sold anything to any one else?-No.
193. Did you not knit a shawl for' Mr. Tulloch about a month ago?-Yes.
194. You did not sell it to him?-No; I did not sell it. 195. Did he supply the wool in that case?-Yes.
196. Was that because you had not wool of your own?-Yes.
197. What did he charge for the wool?-He just gave me £1 for knitting the shawl.
198. He supplied the wool, and agreed to pay you for knitting the shawl?-Yes.
199. Were you paid that £1?-Yes.
200. In money?-No.
201. Did you ask for money?-No.
202. Are you sure you did not ask for it in money?-Yes; I am sure of that.
203. Did you get any part of it in money?-No.
204. What did you get?-Just any clothes that I was needing.
205. When you went into the shop with the shawl, what passed between you?-I said, 'Here is your shawl Mr. Tulloch.' He asked me what I was wanting.
206. Did you say you wanted money?-No.
207. What did you say?-That I was wanting some goods.
208. Did you mention the goods you wanted?-Yes.
209. What were they?-I believe I took 6 yards of white cotton at 6d. a yard; I also took 41/4 yards of cloth at 4s. 2d. a yard, with which to make waterproof clothing. I got some small things with the balance but I don't remember what they were.
210. But the shawl was to be £1; the cotton came to 3s., and the waterproof cloth to 17s. 81/2d., so that you were rather in Mr. Tulloch's debt: was that left standing till the next time?-Yes.
211. Then you are to knit him something more?-Yes.
212. You have another order just now?-Yes.
213. Are you working at it?-I have not begun to it just yet.
214. Have you anything else to sell just now?-Yes.
215. Is it something you have knitted with your own wool?-Yes; but I have sent it south.
216. Is that because you expect to get money there?-Yes; I have sent it to an old neighbour woman of mine who is now in Thurso.
217. Is she a person who makes a practice of dealing in such things?-No; she is just an acquaintance of mine.
218. Is there anything else you wish to say?-No.
[Page 5]
Lerwick, January 1, 1872, ELIZABETH ROBERTSON, examined.
219. Are you a knitter in Lerwick?-Yes.
220. Do you live alone?-I live with my aged stepmother.
221. Who do you work for?-For the last six years I have knitted for myself, but before that I used to knit for the merchants in general. I knitted for the late Mr. Laurenson, and Mr. G. Harrison, and Mr. Tulloch, and Mr. Linklater,-in short, for almost all the merchants.
222. But that was six years ago?-Yes.
223. When you knitted for the merchants, was the wool supplied to you by them?-Yes.
224. Did you pay for it when you got it out, or when you were paid for your work upon it?-I was just paid for my work.
225. How much would you be able to make in a week at that sort of work?-I could not exactly say how much. I was in delicate health; but in some weeks I might have earned 1s. 6d. a day, and in some weeks perhaps less.
226. Was that the only thing you were working at?-Yes. The only sort of knitting I had was veils and shawls.
227. But was knitting the only thing you were employed at that time?-That was the only thing I was ever employed at in my life.
228. Then, on an average, you earned from 5s. to 6s. a week?- Yes; or from 4s. to 5s.
229. How often were you paid?-Just when I asked for any sort of goods that were in the shop.
230. Would you go once a week or once a fortnight to the shop for payment?-Yes; perhaps I would. I just went as I was done with the work which they required.
231. Did you get a book?-No. I never kept a book.
232. How did you know how much was due to you?-I just depended on the truth of the gentlemen's statements when they added up my accounts.
233. They kept an account in a book?-Yes.
234. Was that the same with all the dealers?-Yes; all that I dealt with before the last six years.
235. Did these merchants supply you with all kinds of goods?- Only with soft goods, and tea and sugar.
236. What did you do for your provisions, such as meal and bread?-I had often to buy such things as I could get, and sell them again at half the price to anybody in the row who would take them from me.
237. Were these the goods you got from the merchants?-Yes.
238. Could you not get anything from them you wanted, except what you have mentioned?-Sometimes I would get a sixpence and sometimes a shilling, but just occasionally.
239. Was that given you as a favour?-Yes, and because they knew I really needed it. It was a mere favour.
240. Were you supporting your stepmother at that time?-No; not at that time. I had only myself to support.
241. But you had no other means of support than your knitting?- No other means at all.
242. Did you ask for money at that time?-Yes; I always asked for money, because I required it so much.
243. Was it generally on a Saturday that you were with?-I did not make any particular settlement; it was just any time that I went.
244. When you got a settlement and took home some of these soft goods, did you go to your neighbours, or to the baker's or provision dealer's shop, and ask for what you wanted in the way of food?-No; but any neighbours that knew me would take from me some of the goods I had, and perhaps give them to a country friend of theirs, and get the money for them.
245. During the last six years you have got into the way of knitting with your own wool?-Yes.
246. Where do you buy your wool, or how do you get it?-There is a lady in the town-a dressmaker and milliner-who deals very largely in hosiery.
247. What is her name?-Miss Robertson. She takes goods from me on lines which I get for my shawls and she gives me wool and cash to favour me, because she knows I have no other way of getting money.
248. What do you mean by taking goods on lines-When I sell a shawl to any hosiery merchant in the town, I get any sort of goods that are in the shop, except wool to knit with; but if I don't want the goods at the time, then the gentleman will give me a line to the amount I have to get.
249. Is that an I O U?-That used to be on them. I think there are other two letters now; but they mean all the same thing.
250. Have you any of these lines?-I have one home. I shall bring it. If I go back to the shop with the line, or send anybody back with it, the merchant's servants will serve the party who brings it with the amount.
251. They will give you full value for it?-Yes, to the full value of the lines.
252. Then Miss Robertson takes these I O U's from you, and gives you worsted for them?-Yes.
253. That worsted you knit into shawls, and these shawls you sell to the merchants, getting from them I O U's?-Yes.
254. Are you any better off under this system than you were before?-Yes. She brings home the wools, and shows me the invoice for them, and I get the wools at what she pays for them. That is much cheaper than I can purchase them for in Lerwick.