Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 101

Laurenson's evidence, and I thought it gave a fair statement of the matter.

3572. Is there anything you wish to add with regard to the system of paying in goods?-I have nothing to add to what I believe has already been stated.

3573. Do you give lines?-Only a very few, when they are asked.

3574. Do you give them to people from whom you buy hosiery, or to those who knit for you?-Only to those from whom I buy hosiery. I don't give out any hosiery to knit at all.

3575. Is it understood in your trade, as well as in that of the other gentlemen who have been examined, that all purchases of hosiery are to be settled for in goods?-Yes, that is generally understood.

It has always been the habit, and we have never got it altered yet.

3576. Do you think it would be expedient to have a change in that respect?-I believe it would, if it could only be got to work.

3577. What is the difficulty in the way of having another system?-We could not give so much in cash for the goods we buy.

3578. Do you think the people generally would not take cash?- Yes, I believe they would want goods. So far as I am concerned, they always take goods from me, and I have never heard them ask for cash. I deal both with country people and with people from Lerwick, and none of them ever asked me for it.

3579. Is it long since you left Mr. Sinclair's employment?-About two and a half years ago.

3580. There has been no important change made in the system of carrying on business either in your shop or in his during that time?-No.

3581. Do you do much in the coa.r.s.er kinds of hosiery?-A little not a great deal. The stockings are generally done by the country people, and the finer work by the town's people.

3582. You buy the stockings from the country people?-Yes, I just exchange the one article for the other.

3583. You fix a nominal price at which you are to buy the stockings?-Yes; the price. I expect to get for them, as near as I can fix it.

3584. You don't expect to make a profit on them?-No; I would often be very thankful to get what I have paid for them.

3585. Then your profit is on the goods which you give in exchange?-Yes.

3586. Do you think you take a higher profit on your goods in consequence of accepting payment for them in hosiery rather than in cash?-No; the goods are all marked in plain figures. When I get cash I generally give off 21/2 or 33/4 cent.

3587. But don't you take a higher profit from all your customers because so much of your goods are paid for in hosiery?-No; if I did so, I would run the risk of losing my business; and in fact I would rather give up the hosiery altogether, because I don't think it [Page 82] pays very well, so much of it gets damaged, and the moths get into it.

3588. How long were you in Mr. Sinclair's shop?-For thirteen years.

3589. Were you acquainted both with the prices paid for hosiery goods and the prices obtained for them in the south?-Yes.

3590. Was more asked for them from the merchants in the south than was paid for them to the knitters in Lerwick?-No; we were always very thankful to get what we had given in goods for them.

3591. But if a cash price was paid for an article, was a higher price put upon it when it was sold south?-Yes; if we paid cash, we required a little more than we had paid. We could not have carried on the business without having a little profit on it.

3592. You do not give out any knitting at all?-Scarcely any. I think I have only two girls knitting for me at present.

3593. Do they get any part of their payment in cash?-Yes, whenever they ask it.

3594. But is it not the understanding that they shall be paid in goods?-Yes; it is generally understood that they shall get anything they want.

3595. How much are they in use to ask for in cash?-Probably a shilling now and then.

3596. Do they live by their knitting, or have they other means of support?-There is one party that does something for me who lives exclusively, or almost exclusively, by knitting; but almost all the girls have something else to do besides that.

3597. What is the name of the girl who lives almost exclusively by knitting?-I think one of them is Catherine Borthwick.

3598. Tea is one of the most common articles you give in exchange for the knitting?-Yes.

3599. Have you ever known of the goods you gave being exchanged for necessaries after you gave them?-No.

3600. Or of your lines being exchanged for necessaries or for cash?-I never knew of a case where that was done.

3601. Have you heard of such a thing being done?-I have heard of it; but I never knew of any of my lines, or any of the goods bought, from me, being exchanged.

3602. Are your lines generally brought back by the same parties to whom they were given out?-I think so; but I am not quite sure, because we just put on them 'Credit the bearer' so much.

3603. Have you a register of your lines?-Yes; I enter the number of the lines in a book.

3604. Was that a system which you adopted from Mr. Sinclair?-It was partly a system of my own. When I commenced on my own account, I adopted the system of keeping a check, the same as a bank chequebook.

3605. How many of these lines do you suppose you issue?-I don't do a great deal in that way. It is only for the accommodation of the parties that I give any at all. I would be quite prepared to settle with them at once if they liked.

3606. I suppose these lines are generally given for the balance upon a shawl, or anything that you buy?-Yes, for any little thing they are selling.

3607. Part of the price is taken in goods, and they take the balance in a line if they don't want the whole of it?-Yes; or perhaps a line may be taken for the whole of it, and they come and get tea and other articles as they want them.

3608. Is it generally long before they come back with these lines?-Some of them may be returned perhaps in a few days, and some of them in a few months. A country girl may keep a line beside her for perhaps a month or twelve months. I have known them keep them for three years, when I was in Mr. Sinclair's employment.

3609. Then the system of lines existed when you were with Mr.

Sinclair?-Yes.

3610. But he had not a register of them at that time?-Not for all the lines: he had a check for them, but they were not all registered then.

3611. Are you aware of the fact that the knitters in Shetland are anxious to sell their goods to others than merchants, in order to get ready money for them?-I believe some of them are; but I never met with many who were anxious to sell their goods for cash.

Lerwick, January 6, 1872, ISABELLA SINCLAIR, recalled.

3612. Do you wish to add anything to your previous evidence?-I wish merely to say, that I have known cases where people have gone out with hosiery and sold it for money, and then come into our shop and bought what goods they required.

3613. Was that hosiery which had been offered to you before and was refused?-Yes.

3614. You had refused to buy it at the price they wanted?-Yes; at any price. I remember one case of that kind with regard to some half-stockings.

3615. When you refused to take them, the woman went and sold them elsewhere, and then came back to you with the money?- Yes.

3616. Was that long ago?-Yes, a good while ago. Of course there may have been other cases of that kind which I don't know about, but in that particular case the woman told me she had done it, I don't remember her name.

Lerwick, January 6, 1872, ROBERT SINCLAIR, recalled.