Second Shetland Truck System Report
Chapter 211 : 8607. At what season of the year do you go?-August and September; after we are done wi

8607. At what season of the year do you go?-August and September; after we are done with the ling fis.h.i.+ng.

8608. And the bargain for the herring fis.h.i.+ng is that you are to get so much a cran?-Yes; that was the agreement we had with Mr.

Adie when we took our nets.

8609. Do you hire nets from him for that fis.h.i.+ng?-No, we buy them, and they are put into our accounts.

8610. Have you paid off the price of these nets now?-Yes.

8611. How long did it take you to pay them?-I could not say exactly, but I think it took us between 8 and 9 years to pay for them all, because we had lean fis.h.i.+ngs.

8612. You mean that the herring fis.h.i.+ng was poor?-Yes.

8613. Did you get them paid off at last?-Yes.

8614. Is the price for the herrings paid down whenever you deliver them?-No.

8615. Do you keep an account for the herring fis.h.i.+ng separate from the account for the ling fis.h.i.+ng?-Yes.

8616. Do you get goods to the other side of that account too?-No; they are all in the same account.

8617. Your goods are kept in an account at Voe?-Yes.

8618. And the price of the herrings is entered to your credit when you settle?-Yes.

8619. Do you keep a pa.s.s-book?-Yes.

8620. Have you got it now?-No; I don't have it, because we think there is no use keeping it after the end of the season. Once we find the pa.s.s-book to be correct, we think it is of no farther use, and when I brought it home I suppose the bairns tore it up.

8621. When you square up your account at the end of the year, do you go and look at all the items in Mr. Adie's book?-Yes.

8622. Are they read over to you?-Yes; I compare them with the items in my book, and I see that they are all correct.

8623. Is it mostly goods or cash that you get in the course of the year?-It is goods for the most part but I get a good part of cash too.

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Brae, January 13, 1872, JOHN RATTER, examined.

8624. You are a fisherman at Weathersta?-Yes.

8625. Do you fish for Mr. Adie?-Yes.

8626. Have you heard what Thomas Robertson has said?-Yes.

8627. Does it all apply to your case as well as his?-Exactly.

8628. How long have you fished for Mr. Adie?-Six years.

8629. Where did you fish before?-I did not fish for any one before, except going for a fee to the ling fis.h.i.+ng.

8630. Do you go to the herring fis.h.i.+ng also?-Yes.

8631. And you are paid for it in the same way as Robertson?- Yes.

8632. You get a fixed price for the herring?-Yes.

8633. Have you anything to add to what he has said?-No.

Brae, January 13, 1872, GILBERT SCOLLAY, recalled.

8634. Is there anything further you wish to say?-I forgot that I had my pa.s.s-book with Mr. Adie for this year with me. It shows the goods I am getting now. [Produces book.]

8635. I thought you were getting your goods at cash price now?- Yes; I had a promise of them at cash price.

8636. I see there is tea, 5d.?-That is for 2 oz. of tea.

8637. Then you are not getting them for cash price yet?-I have no doubt that when I settle with Mr. Adie he will square that up. I have his promise for it, and I have no doubt that he will do it. I wish further to say, that this truck system or compulsory barter is a great cause of pauperism, as it makes the poor careless and the rich fearless; because, should the head of the family die, the creditor will probably take the effects left, and consequently leave the widow and fatherless children, if any, on the parish. Another thing is, that when the merchants have it in their power to price both their goods and mine, they clearly see that I must sell, and off it must go at whatever they say is the value, and I must take their goods at the value they are pleased to put upon them, and I-if I am in debt-dare not grumble.

8638. What goods have you had to sell upon which they have put their own price?-For one thing, I have been a carrier of hosiery to different places.

8639. Who have you carried hosiery for?-Perhaps for my wife or others, and the value of the stockings was made to be 10d., or 8d., or 7d. If I took tea, and the value of the stockings was 10d., I could only get 9d. worth. If I took cotton goods I would get the full value, but not if I took tea. Then, if under this system a man gets into debt, it is more in appearance than in reality; and should that man ask money from the apparent creditor, the old account will be shaken at him as a scarecrow, and he is generally told to pay his credit and transfer his custom, and that consequently nails him to the old plan. As to the difference in the price of meal, what deceived me in that line was, that I and others were often told that they only charged 2s. per sack as a commission, which would have been 10 per 100 sacks; but at last, when I wrote to some of the meal dealers in the south, I found it was more like 50 per 100 sacks-that is 10s. per sack instead of 2s.

Brae, January 13, 1872, WILLIAM ADIE, examined.

8640. You are a son of Mr. T.M. Adie, who has been already examined?-I am. I am a partner of the business carried on at Voe, although it is carried on in my father's name. I have been a partner for seven or eight years.

8641. Are you aware of any arrangement existing between Messrs.

Adie, Anderson, and Inkster, to this effect, that when a fisherman who is in debt to one of these curers goes to another, the new employer undertakes the debt incurred to the former employer?- There was an arrangement of that sort entered into.

8642. Has it been acted upon to a certain extent?-Yes; I think it has been pretty well carried out.

8643. Was it reduced to writing?-Yes; I think the original doc.u.ment is in our possession. I will send it to you.* A princ.i.p.al object or inducement for having that doc.u.ment drawn up was, that a great many of our fishermen were in the habit of settling at the end of the season, and getting advances for rent, or of goods, on the understanding that they were to fish, or go in a boat of ours to the fis.h.i.+ng, in the following season; and then they left and went to Mr. Anderson, and took similar advances from him.

8644. Did you find that a man who got into arrears in your books, and to whom you were obliged to refuse supplies on account of his debt being too large, was apt to go to another merchant and engage with him for the following season?-In some cases perhaps they did so, but not as a rule.

8645. But did you not find that when a man's debt got so large that you had to refuse him supplies, and he was not likely to pay it, he went away to another merchant instead of continuing to fish for you?-Sometimes; but most of the men, when they are in debt in that way, save as much as possible, and keep under expenses, in order to a.s.sist in getting the debt cleared off.

8646. You see when a man is trying to keep down expenses, and you help him as far as possible?-Yes.

8647. Do you remember of one William Inkster leaving you in that way a good many years ago?-Yes.

8648. And Mr. Anderson paid the whole of his debt to you under that agreement?-Yes; Mr. Anderson paid his debt.

8649. Have other cases occurred of a similar kind?-Yes; I think we have paid Mr. Anderson some accounts for some of his men, and he has paid us.

8650. Is it the full debt that is paid in these cases, or only a proportion of it, or do you make a compromise?-Sometimes we make a compromise.