Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 13

Of an inquiry regarding the existence and effects of Truck, the quality and prices of the goods furnished by the employer in lieu of money forms a necessary part. In Lerwick, as might be expected, compet.i.tion, and the greater facility of communication with other places, have kept the prices of the necessaries of life at a moderate figure.

No complaints were made as to prices there, and it was thought unnecessary to make a minute investigation. Evidence was taken, however, for the purpose of comparing the prices of meal and flour as sold in Lerwick with those charged at the fish-curers'

shops in the country districts. It is a fact of some significance, that few persons above the condition of peasants purchase supplies for family use from the shops in Shetland. Provisions and groceries, as well as clothing are to a large extent imported by private individuals from Aberdeen, Leith, and Edinburgh. The Rev. Mr.

Sutherland says that he gets his goods twice a year from the south, and does not deal with any local shop, unless he happens to be out of a particular article; and that, so far as he knows, it is common for clergymen and others in the same position to get their supplies from the south:

'7570. Why is that done?-I cannot afford to buy articles here; they are too dear for me. My stipend would not afford to pay for them.'

'7571. Do you know if the same reason operates in the case of your fellow clergymen?-I don't know; but they have often spoken about it. In the first place, I hold the goods to be, as might be expected, inferior in quality to the goods I would like. I don't blame the merchants for not having goods of better quality, because their customers perhaps would not be in the way of buying them; but I could not afford to buy from the merchants here, in consequence of the tremendous percentage which they charge upon their goods.'

[C. Robertson, 15,017; J. Robertson, sen., 14,072.]

Statements to the same effect are made by the Rev. D. Miller, United Presbyterian minister at Mossbank, and the Rev. W. Smith, minister of Unst. [6001; 10,714.]

Many witnesses complained that prices are higher at the 'shops'

than at Lerwick. Thus the leading witness from Dunrossness said that oatmeal at Mr. Bruce's shop at Grutness was 4s. a boll (140 lbs.), or 8s. per sack or quarter, above its price in Lerwick.

[L. Mail, 568.]

GRUTNESS

The prices charged here are much too high; and this arises not merely from the want of the check of compet.i.tion, as regards the men thirled to the shop by want of money to deal elsewhere, but also from the very peculiar way in which the prices are fixed. This may possibly be explained by the fact that neither Mr. Bruce nor his shopkeeper have been properly trained to the business of the shop, which has been taken up as an appendage of the fish trade.

Gilbert Irvine, the shopkeeper, was unable to give any very clear explanation of the way in which the price of meal at Grutness is fixed, and why the men never knew the price of it until the settlement. [G. Irvine, 13,173.] But Mr. Bruce says:

'13,306. In what way do you fix the averageprice of meal for the year?--We take what other people are charging in Lerwick and elsewhere; and after considering the quality of the meal, and our extra expense upon it, we charge what we think it can reasonably bring, without any regard to the cost price of it.'

'13,307. Do you not take the cost price into consideration at all?- Of course it is an element, but not the princ.i.p.al element, in fixing the price.'

This loose method of proceeding may account for the complaints of the price made by all the men, who were quite satisfied with the quality. No man deals at the store at Grutness who can possibly get money to buy his goods elsewhere, and Mr. Bruce himself speaks of the shop as a necessity for the fishing, and not a source of profit in itself. The price of meal was ascertained by William Goudie to be at least 3s. per boll above, the price elsewhere.

There is also at Grutness an ambiguity about weight -pecks being sold by 'lispund weight,' 4 to 32 lbs., instead of boll weight, 4 to 35 lbs. = quarter boll. The price of oatmeal for the whole of 1870 was 22s. at Grutness, which was the highest price it attained in Lerwick for a very short time after the breaking out of the French war. During by far the greater part of the year, it varied at Lerwick from 17s. 3d. to 19s. It is instructive to compare the price at Grutness with a note of the prices charged by Mr. Gavin Henderson at Scousbrough, three miles distant, where no fishermen are bound to the shopkeeper or engaged by him. This note (p. 319 of Evidence) brings out an average of 18s. 3d. per boll on all Mr. Henderson's sales for that year. Comparison of Mr.

Henderson's note of prices for that year with Mr. Charles Robertson's (p. 378), shows that a merchant carrying on business twenty miles from Lerwick can sell his meal as cheaply as merchants there are in the practice of doing. Mr. Bruce's own invoices show that his meal for the season 1870 was purchased at an average price of 16s. 8d. per boll, and that out of the whole supply of 171 bolls, all but 25 bolls was bought at 16s. 3d. and under. The freight from Aberdeen to Grutness he states to be 1s.

5d. per boll. Thus 16s. 8d. +1s. 5d. = 18s. 1d., leaving 3s. 11d. for profit and risk, or about 22 per cent. But Mr. Bruce explains that, as his shop is not conducted on purely commercial principles, but as an auxiliary to the fishing, this is all required to cover expenses of management. It is nevertheless very expensive for the retail purchasers. 2 lb. lines at Grutness are sold for 2s. 2d.; at Mr.

Henderson's, for 2s. Tea, of which Shetlanders consume a large quant.i.ty, and of which they are said to be good judges, is said by one witness to be from 4d. to 8d. dearer per lb. at Boddam, where there is a shop of Mr. Bruce's, than at Lerwick or Gavin Henderson's, a shop in the neighbourhood; cotton to be 2d. a yard dearer, and tobacco 1d. or 2d. a quarter lb. The evidence of Mr.

Charles Fleming shows that some cotton stuffs, pieces of which were obtained at the shop at Grutness, and which were said by Mr.

Irvine to be sold at 41/2d., 8d., and 1s. a yard respectively, were worth in retail very much less than these prices.

[J. Bruce, jun., H. Mailand, 4858; W. Goudie, 4317; G. Irvine, 13, 259; J. Brown, 5300; H. Gilbertson, 4551; C. Robertson, 15,040; J.

Robertson, sen., 14,587; T. Aitken, 4833; G. Irvine, 13,224; J.

Bruce, jun., 13, 319; G. Irvine, 13,291; R. Henderson, 12,877; R.

Halcrow, 4663; C. Fleming, 17,042; G. Irvine, 13,200.]

QUENDALE

The general import of the evidence as to Mr. Grierson's shop at Quendale is that the prices are not so high as at Grutness, but higher (2s. or 3s per boll for meal than those at Gavin Henderson's at Scousborough and even than those at Messrs. Hay & Co.'s at Dunrossness. Here the prices of fishing lines are-2 lb., 2s. 3d.; 21/2 lb., 2s. 6d; 13/4 lb., 2s.; 11/2 lb., 1s. 9d. At Gavin Henderson's, 2 lb., 2s.; 21/4lb., 2s. 3d.

[J. Flawes, 4978; C. Eunson, 5067; G. Goudie, 13,392; R.

Henderson, 12,877.]

MOSSBANK

The difference between prices at Mossbank and Lerwick has been not less than 4s. or 4s. 6d. per boll, although Mr. Pole (5962) says that in general the difference is from 1s. 6d. to 2s. per boll.

The difference between Mossbank prices for meal and the shop of Magnus Johnston at Tofts, a mile distant, is said by Johnston to be a penny a peck, or 1s. 5d. per boll. At the shop of the same firm at Greenbank, in North Yell, the price of meal was 5s. 8d. per lispund (32 lbs.) in the summer of 1871- about 24s. 6d. per boll, while in Lerwick it ranged at 21s. 6d. Similar differences exist there as regards other articles, such as tea and sugar.

[J. Henderson, 5514; J. Nicholson, 8738; M. Johnston, 7897; J.L.

Pole, 9396, J. Nicholson, 8736.]

HAY & CO.'S SHOPS

From Burra, Whalsay, and the other establishments of Messrs. Hay & Co., no complaints as to prices were made. Some of their stations are so near Lerwick that they must sell as low as possible, in order to secure the custom of the men. It is said that at Fetlar, one of their most remote stations, the goods are as cheap and good as at Lerwick. The books kept at Fetlar show sales of meal in July last at 23s., in August at 22s. 8d., and in September at 21s.; while in these months the prices in Lerwick were-July, 21s. 6d.; August, 21s.; September, 21s. In Fetlar, Messrs. Hay & Co. have the only large shop. At North Roe (Hay & Co.), the most remote shop on the mainland, the price of meal per boll, at the beginning of the fishing season of 1871, was only 6d. or 1s. higher than at Lerwick at the same date, according as the purchase spoken to by a witness was made in April or May. It seems to be a fair conclusion from the evidence that this firm does not, as a rule, charge high prices. No complaint has been made with respect to quality.

[W. Irvine, 3715; Catherine Petrie, 1458; G. Gaunson, 8887; J.

Garriock, 8766; A. Ratter, 7400; C. Robertson, 15,040; T. Aitken, 4836.]

VOE

The establishment of Mr. Adie at Voe (Olnafirth) is one of the largest in Shetland. No specimens were obtained from it for examination; but the oral evidence as to the provisions sold there may be briefly referred to. Mr. Adie himself admits that the cost of carriage necessarily enhances prices at Voe, and that meal is therefore generally 2s. per boll dearer than at Lerwick. A witness who lately went to live there, however, paid 1s. 5d. per peck for meal which he would have got in Lerwick for 1s. 2d., or five months ago for 1s. 3d. This is a difference not of 2s., but of 4s.

per boll; and although the witness Gilbert Scollay impressed me unfavourably by the manner of his evidence, there is much to corroborate his statement with regard to his dealings with the shop at Voe. He says that -

'Ultimately I wrote to the meal dealers in the south, and I found that there was a difference of 10s. on the sack of meal; that, upon 12 sacks, would have been a saving of 6 alone.'

[T.M. Adie, 5699; R. Mouat, 4240; C. Robertson, 15,040.]

Of course 2s. 6d., or in winter, according to Mr. Adie, 5s. per sack, must be deducted from this difference for freight. Again, on April 21, 1868, meal being 26s. 6d. per boll see or 1s. 7d. per peck, was sold at Voe at 1s. 9d. per peck.

[See G. Scollay, 14,975; C. Robertson, 15,040.]

R. MOUAT'S SHOP

The worst accounts are given of the meal kept at the shop of Robert Mouat, Sandwick, formerly referred to. Henry Sinclair says that 'the greater part of it was fit for nothing but the pigs.'

What he called his second flour, says another witness, 'was of such a quality that it could not be eaten by human beings;' but,' he adds, 'it had to be eaten for the support of life while it existed.'

[5330; M. Malcolmson, 3013, 3014; W. Manson, 3039; T.

Williamson, 9470; J. Robertson, jun., 15,186.]

BURRAVOE

Gilbert Robertson, a boatskipper and an elder of the kirk, gets his supplies in Lerwick, because he found flour to be 2s. per sack, and meal 3s. or 4s. a sack, cheaper than Burravoe, a place to which there has for some years been steam communication from Lerwick twice a week.

[9320]

UNST

In Unst a witness got meal from Spence & Co., at the date of the sitting there, at 1s. 5d. per peck, or as nearly as possible 24s. 11/2d.

per boll, allowing 1/2d. a peck for loss in weighing; the price in Lerwick being 19s. 6d. per boll, or 131/2d. a peck. During almost the whole of the previous year the same price was charged there, though it was sometimes 1s. 4d.; and 1s. 4d. was the price of the same meal at Isbister's adjacent shop. The books kept at Balta Sound show that meal was being sold at 5s. 8d. and 5s, 9d. per lispund, or above 24s. per boll, in October 1871, while the price in Lerwick in that month was 19s. 6d. per boll. An opinion is expressed by the registrar of the parish Unst, that the 2s. 6d. tea he gets in Lerwick is 'much about the same as the 3s. tea which he gets from Spence & Co. at Balta Sound. But a favourable report upon Spence & Co.'s 3s. tea sold to me is afterwards referred to.

[Janet Robertson, 9812; C, Robertson, 15,042; J. Laurenson, 9843, 9905; W. G. Mouat, 10,254; C. Robertson, 15,040; P. Johnson, 10,227.]

SKERRIES

At Skerries, where Mr. Adie has the shop, and is tacksman of the islands, meal is said to be charged 7s. a sack higher than it is in Lerwick; and an instance is given in which 6s. a sack was paid for it, while it could have been had from any merchant in Lerwick for 50s. or 51s. In January of the present year the price was 1s, 4d. per peck, or 23s. per per boll, at Skerries, being 19s. 6d., or 1s. 11/2d.

per peck, at Lerwick. A similar difference existed in spring 1871.

All articles at Skerries are stated to be over-priced, such as soap, soda, and sugar, which can be got much cheaper even at Whalsay, where Hay & Co. have a shop. On soda the overcharge is said to be 50 per cent.