Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 14

[T. Hutchison, 12,658; J. Robertson, sen., 14,569; P. Henderson, 12,756; D. Anderson, 12,795; A. Humphrey, 12,826; T. Hutchison, 12,685.]

VIDLIN

Although Mr. Robertson carries on an extensive trade in meal at Lerwick, and there sells at town prices, his shopkeeper at Vidlin, in Lunnasting, charges about the ordinary prices of the country shops. A pa.s.s-book produced by a witness shows meal charged at 22s. 8d. and 22s. in September 1870, when the Lerwick price was 19s. The difference, however, does not appear to be so great here as at some other places. Thus in February 1870 meal was 1s. 11/2 d. per peck, being 1s. per peck at Lerwick. In June 1871 overhead flour was sold at Voe at 1s. 3d. per peck; the price at Lerwick being 16s. 6d. per boll, or 1s. per peck, or for the finer quality of overhead flour, about 1s. 11/2 d. per peck.

[L. Simpson, 13,884; G. Scollay, 15,013; C. Robertson, 15,032; G.

Scollay, 15,010; 15,012; C. Robertson, 15,037, 15,043.]

YELL, OLLABERRY, ETC

Prices charged by some other merchants may be mentioned at random. Laurence Williamson, Mid Yell, sold meal in August 1871 at 3s. per 1/2 lispund, or about 25s. per boll, the Lerwick price being then 21s. At Ollaberry shop (Anderson & Co.) 21/4 lines are charged 2s. 3d. cash, and 2s. 6d. if marked down, while they are got by a witness direct from Glasgow 'for 1s. 11d., including freight and everything.' In 1871 men fishing for William Jack Williamson at Ulsta, South Yell, paid 1s. 3d. for flour, while there was as good at Messrs. Hay's at Feideland, a remote fishing station, for 1s. 1d. Paraffin oil in Unst was retailed in January at the rate of 2s. 6d. per gallon, being purchased at 1s. 5d.

[L. Williamson, 9068; A. Johnson, 14,933, G. Gilbertson, 9583.]

These are but a few instances of the statements of witnesses with regard to the prices and qualities of goods. They appear to show that the truck system of Shetland resembles the truck of the English and Scotch mining and manufacturing districts in enhancing the prices of goods to the purchasers. This is the natural result of a system in which the purchaser has no option as to the dealer to whom he goes for necessary supplies; but it must also be remembered that in retail trade in rural districts custom has a powerful effect in fixing prices, and that even if truck did not exist, prices in so remote a region would be somewhat above the level of Aberdeen or Wick.

I conclude this part of the subject by referring to the evidence of Mr. James Lewis, an extensive and experienced merchant in Edinburgh, as to the price and quality of certain samples of goods submitted to him. The goods were purchased at the shops of Messrs. Pole, Hoseason, & Co., Mossbank, by a person employed by me, and that of Mr.Morgan Laurenson, Lochend, Northmaven, by Charlotte Johnson, for her own use; and at Messrs. Spence & Co.'s shop at Uyea Sound, by myself.

[A.T. Jamieson, 7945; C. Johnson, 15,811.]

MOSSBANK

The four articles first spoken to by Mr. Lewis were got at Mossbank. The meal was of very inferior quality, not saleable in the Canongate of Edinburgh; and though bought at 1s. 5d. a peck = 1, 4s. 6d. per boll, is valued at 20s. This corresponds exactly with the Shetland evidence as to value. Tea bought at 2s. 10d. is valued at 2s. 4d. as the retail price in Edinburgh, which gives 211/2 per cent. to cover carriage, risk, and profit.

[J. Lewis, 16,816.]

UYEASOUND.

Tea bought at 2s. 8d. is valued at 2s. 6d. here; and Mr. Lewis thinks 2s. 10d. would be a fair value for it in Shetland, being a good tea, and carrying, according to the practice of the trade, a larger profit. Sugar bought at 5d. is valued at 41/2d.

LOCHEND.

Tea, for which the witness paid 4s. 4d., is valued at 3s., and though by far the best of the teas examined, was much over-priced.

Loaf-sugar at 10d. should have cost only 6d., and would be too dear at 8d. even in Shetland. Flour bought at 2d. per lb. is not fit for use, and is not flour at all in the opinion of the reporter. Rice at 31/2d. per lb. is fairish; would sell at 21/2d. in Canongate, and might fairly be sold at 3d. in Shetland. Soap bought at 6d. per lb.

was worth 4d., so far as Mr. Lewis could judge of it in a dry state.

Tobacco sold at Grutness at 4d. per oz., and another sample sold at Gavin Henderson's, Dunrossness, at 4d. per oz., are both valued at 4s. per lb., or 3d. per oz.

Throughout the islands the prices charged to the men in account are the same, with few exceptions, as those charged to the purchaser for cash. Mr. Adie gives a discount where the amount purchased is worth discounting, but he also usually gives a discount of 5 per cent. upon his men's accounts. In Unst a lower price seems to be charged where cash is paid.

[W. Irvine, 3625; A. Tulloch, 5446; J.L. Pole, 9440, 9448; W.

Robertson, 11,111, 13,635; W.B.M. Harrison, 15,726; L.F.U. Garriock, 12,295; T.M. Adie, 5636; J. Harper, 10,393; T.

Anderson, 10,507.]

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SPLITTERS, BEACH-BOYS, AND WOMEN.

WAGES SETTLED IN GOODS

The fishermen hitherto spoken of are not strictly labourers receiving wages, but may be regarded as vendors of wet fish to the fish-merchant, or less properly as partners with him. But to persons employed in curing fish, wages are paid, and are often paid in goods to their full amount. In the payment of these persons, especially the women and boys, undisguised truck exists to an extent not exceeded in any of the trades in which the system has been carried to the highest perfection; but the important distinction is to be observed, that little or no compulsion or influence is required to make the work-people take the goods.

WEEKLY PAYMENTS, CURING BY CONTRACT

In some of the curing establishments at Lerwick the pays are as frequent as it is reasonably possible to make them. The people are paid every week; but in nine cases out of ten a large part of their weekly wages is antic.i.p.ated in supplies at the employer's shop. This of course involves an amount of time and trouble, and a risk of bad debts, which no merchant would incur, except for a large profit, and which indeed led Messrs. Harrison & Sons to refuse altogether to give 'out-takes' to work-people of this cla.s.s. The wages are, however, paid at Lerwick, and some of the people spend their money at the shops of the firm, which adjoin the pay-office. At Scalloway, where Messrs. Garriock & Co. have no shop, they employ persons at daily wages, which are paid weekly, or within the fortnight. But the habit of running accounts is so inveterate in Shetlanders that 'often what they have to get on the Sat.u.r.day night is forestalled in the shops.' In contracts for curing, which are sometimes made, Messrs. Garriock & Co. have no dealings with the work-people employed by the contractors, but make such advances as are necessary to them in money. It is not always so where curing is ostensibly done by contract. Thus, in Unst, many of the work-people employed by a contractor at Westing have accounts in the shop-books of Spence & Co. at Uyea Sound; settlements being effected, and sometimes advances made, by the merchants themselves on the authority of lines given by the contractor, stating the amount of the beach fee. The balance due is ascertained in the merchant's books, after deducting the amount due by the contractor for his own supplies at the shop.

[W.B.M. Harrison, 15,772; J. Manson, 2941; L.F.U. Garriock, 12,445, 12,443; A. Sandison, 10,108; P. Smith, 10,344.]

BEACH FEES

These are the cases in which exceptional circ.u.mstances are found in dealings between merchants and persons employed at the beaches. Throughout Shetland the most common arrangement is to pay splitters and beach-boys or women by a beach fee, which varies from 8 or 10 for the season to an experienced head curer, to 30s. to a beach-boy in his first year. Sometimes extra hands are paid weekly wages as day-workers. But even in these cases advances are generally made in goods; and sometimes, as at Mossbank and Greenbank, the account runs 'three, four, five, or six weeks or perhaps the whole season.' In a pa.s.sage already quoted from the evidence of an extensive employer, it is made very clear that these people, in whatever way they are paid, are 'expected' to come to the employer for supplies.

[W. Pole, 5917; p. 14, see above.]

The operation of truck in this department is shown in the examination of Mr. Robertson, manager for Mr. Leask, who employs 80 persons regularly, and others occasionally, in his curing establishments near Lerwick. Mr. Robertson afterwards produced a 'time-book' for the people employed at Sound Beach, near Lerwick,

13,607. ....'to show the proportion of money and of goods received by each. [Produces book.]'

'13,608. That is a time-book for the work-people employed in 1871 at Sound Beach, which is about a mile from Lerwick?-Yes. It shows the amount of cash paid, the balance, of course, being the amount of their accounts for the week.'

'13,609. The first name is M'Gowan Gray?-He is the superintendent.'

'13,610. The entry in his case is, Cash 2s., time 6, wages 10s.: what does that mean?-He has 10s. a week of wages, six days a week, and 2s. is the cash he has to get.'

'13,611. The entry in the inner column is made at pay-day, showing the amount of cash he has to get?-Yes.'

'13,612. How is the amount of cash ascertained?-We have a ledger account with each individual, which is settled every week, but perhaps it may not be balanced. We do not generally balance until the end of the year, but we square accounts before.'

'13,613. Is the account squared to ascertain the amount of cash payable?-Yes, the amount of cash due to the individual.'

'13,618. Are the balances entered here always paid in cash?- Always.'

'13,619. Are they never allowed to lie?-Not with the work-people.'

'13,620. Is the week ending 2d Sept. 1871, of which this- [showing]-is the account, a fair average of week throughout the season?-I think it will be about a fair average.'

'13,621. It shows 5, 17s. 5d. as the total amount of wages earned; and of that, 3, 19s. 7d. was paid in cash at the end of the week, the rest having been taken out in the course of the week in goods?-Yes, princ.i.p.ally in provisions.'

'13,622. I see that in one case it had been altogether taken out in goods, and there was no cash due?-Yes; but in others you will find that there has been nothing taken out, and that the whole was paid in cash.'

'13,623. I see that in six cases cash has been paid in full out of twenty-seven people employed?-Yes.'

'13,624. I fancy that in that week rather more has been paid in cash than the average, because in the following week 2, 9s. 2d. was due, and 1, 1s. 6d was paid in cash. In another week 4, 12s. 2d.

was payable, and 1, 11s. 10d. was paid in cash. In another week 4, 6s. 9d. was payable, and 1,4s. 5d was paid in cash, there being twenty-five persons employed in that week. Then, in the last week which appears in the book, 3, 14s. 7d. was payable, and 1, 2s. 7d. was paid in cash, there being twenty-five persons employed then also?-Yes; people of course require the same amount of provisions whether they earn much or little, the amount of their balance in cash being less where the work has been less.'

[W. Robertson, 11,248.]

The story from other places is much the same. Thus, at Scalloway, where Messrs. Hay & Co. have a curing establishment, their manager's evidence is:-

'11,430. Is payment made to them in the shop at the counter?- Yes. Their advances are entered against them in the book, and then their wages are placed to their credit; and if they have anything to get, it is given to them.'

'11,431. Is there a separate ledger account for each of these parties?-Yes; every one has an account, and when he gets advances these are put to that account.'

'11,432. Can you say that any money ever pa.s.ses at any settlement with these beach people?-Sometimes there has been a little, but not a great deal.'

[G. Tulloch, 11,430.]

The beach fee, which is the usual mode of payment to beach-boys, is almost always antic.i.p.ated to a large extent, and the advances of goods sometimes begin as soon as the boy is engaged in the winter-, from three to six months before the work is begun.

An example of the practice is presented in the evidence of James Garrioch, shopkeeper at Fetlar for Messrs. Hay & Co.; from an a.n.a.lysis of which it appears that of 16, 6s. payable as beach fees to nine boys, less than 7 was paid in cash, chiefly at settlement; and of 13, 5s. due to two men employed as curers, only 3 was paid in money. An examination of the books of Spence & Co.

leaves the impression that most of the men and boys employed by them in curing at Balta Sound and Haroldswick take goods to an amount exceeding their beach fees.

[W. Goudie, 4401; J. Flaws, 5011; T.M. Adie, 5754; T. Thomason, 6241; J. Anderson, 6602; T. Hutchison, 12,608; J. Robertson, sen.,14,086; J. Garrioch, 8791; W.G. Mouat, 10,277.]

At Quendale, Sumburgh, and other places, where the tenants are bound to deliver their fish to the landlord, it is one of the conditions of their holding that 'they have to supply boys when they have them suitable for the purpose.'