Second Shetland Truck System Report

W >> William Guthrie >> Second Shetland Truck System Report

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 134 | 135 | 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 | 145 | 146 | 147 | 148

Second Shetland Truck System Report

by William Guthrie

NOTES 1.

Truck - The payment of wages otherwise than in money, the
system or practice of such a payment. References/Edinburgh
enquiry/book/archives/size of original doc. OED.

The Truck Commission Enquiry, 1872, is a major social history
source the Shetland Islands in the 19th century. It followed on
from an existing Truck Commission enquiry in 1871, after evidence
from Shetland was heard in Edinburgh. 45,125 questions covered
the rest of the country, 17,070 for Shetland. Despite this effort, little
effect immediately resulted in Shetland from legislation following
on the national enquiry.

References
George W. Hilton, The Truck System, including a History of the
British Truck Acts, 1465-1960,
W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd., Cambridge, 1960.

Hance D. Smith, Introduction (to facsimile reprint of the Report
of the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the Truck System
(Shetland), Sandwick, 1978.

Hance D. Smith, Shetland Life and Trade, 1550-1914, John Donald
Publishers Ltd., Edinburgh, 1984, ISBN 0859761037.

For further queries, contact Shetland.archives@sic.shetland.gov.uk.

NOTES 2.

The original documents come in a double column, small print format.
Since it isn't possible, or even desirable to reproduce that here, some
alterations have been made. Page numbers are indicated within square
brackets - [Page x]. Tables, which were in even smaller print, have
also been altered somewhat where necessary. In particular, Table I-IV
in the Report section have been split up for ease of use, and put after,
rather than in the middle of the section referring to them. The use of
italics has been indicated by means of the following .

The most obvious typographical errors have been removed, but otherwise
the text is untouched. However, the spelling of place names and personal
names has altered a bit over the years, and the items below cover most of
the obvious problems, as well as some misapprehensions and errors.

Blanch-
now Blance.

ca'in/caain whales-
alternative spellings of the same word - for Pilot Whale, usually.

Clunas-
now usually Cluness.

Colafirth-
now Collafirth.

Coningsburgh-
now Cunningsburgh.

Cumlywick-
now Cumlewick.

Cunningster-
now Cunnister.

Dalzell-
alternatively Dalziel, Dalyell, Deyell, and even Yell.

Dunrosness-
now Dunrossness.

Edmonston/Edmonstone-
now Edmondston.

Eskerness-
probably Eshaness.

Exter, Janet-
a misapprehension - actual name unknown but possibly
Janet Inkster.

Fetler-
now Fetlar.

Fiedeland-
now Fethaland.

Flaus/Flawes/Flaws-
alternative spellings of the same name now usually
Flaws.

Garrioch/Garriock/Garrick-
can be alternative spellings of the same name.

ghive/geo/gio-
gio - an inlet.

Goudie/Gaudie-
now Goudie.

Hancliffe-
probably Hangcliff.

Harra-
now Herra.

Hildesha-
now Hildasay, an island.

Hillyar/Hillyard-
probably Heylor.

Humphray/Humphrey/Umphray-
can be alternative spellings of the same name.

Jameson/Jamieson-
now usually Jamieson.

Lasetter-
now Lusetter.

Lebidden-
now Leabitten.

Leisk/Leask-
alternative spellings of the same name.

Lesslie/Leslie-
alternative spellings of the same name.

Lingord-
now Lingarth.

Luija-
probably Linga, an island.

Malcolmson/Malcomson-
now usually Malcolmson.

Manaster-
prob. Mangaster.

Mavisgrind-
now Mavis Grind.

Nicholson-
now usually Nicolson.

North Mavine/Northmaven-
now Northmavine.

Rennesta-
probably Ringasta.

Roenessvoe-
now Ronas Voe.

Satter-
now Setter.

scatthold/scattales/scattholes-
now scattald.

scaups/scaaps-
alternative spellings of the same word, a bed of
shellfish on the sea bottom.

Simbister-
now Symbister.

Stenness-
now Stennes.

Sullem/Sullam-
now Sullom.

Thomason/Thomson/Thompson-
alternative spellings of the same name.

Trosswick-
now Troswick.

Urrafirth-
now Urafirth.

Usiness-
prob. Ustaness.

Vinsgarth-
now Veensgarth.

Waterbru-
now Waterbrough.

West Sandwick-
now Westsandwick.

Angus Johnson, May, 2001.

[Page 1 rpt.]
REPORT.
_______

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY AUSTEN BRUCE, ONE OF HER
MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES OF STATE.

SIR,
THE Report on the Truck System, presented to Parliament in 1871,
stated that the Commissioners, Messrs. Bowen and Sellar, had
received information from four witnesses with regard to Shetland,
'tending to show that the existence of Truck in an oppressive form
is general in the staple trades of the islands'. The Commissioners
in their Report call attention to this evidence, and add: 'Time
would not allow of a local inquiry at Shetland, nor can an inquiry
be adequately conducted into the Truck which is alleged to prevail
there otherwise than upon the spot. No opinion accordingly is
offered either as to the extent of, or the remedy for, the alleged
evils; but the necessity of some investigation by Her Majesty's
Government into the condition of these islands seems made out.'

Having been appointed, by a warrant under your hand, dated Dec.
23, 1871, one of the Commissioners under the Truck Commission
Act, 1870, in room of Mr. Bowen, I was directed to proceed to
Shetland and institute an inquiry there under that Act. I inquired
respecting the matters embraced under the instructions of the Act,
and I have now to report as follows:-

I went to Shetland at the beginning of the year, a time when the
seafaring people of the country are generally at their homes, and
I at once began to take evidence with regard to the system of
barter or truck which prevails in various trades and industries in
these islands. Evidence was taken respecting the hosiery or
knitting trade, in which a very large proportion of the women of
the country are engaged. Evidence was also taken with regard to
the fishing trade, which in its different branches affords
employment for part of the year to the whole of the male
population, with few exceptions. With regard to the manner
in which sales of farm stock and produce are transacted, rents are
paid, and land is held in Shetland, information has also been
obtained, without which it appeared to be impossible to form a
correct idea of the condition of the people, and the way in which
barter or truck presents itself as an inseparable element of their
daily life and habits. A large amount of evidence was also pressed
upon me with regard to the engagement of seamen at Lerwick for
sealing and whaling voyages to Greenland and Davis Straits.

Sittings for the purpose of taking evidence were held at Lerwick,
Brae (Delting), Hillswick (Northmaven), Mid Yell, Balta Sound
(Unst), Boddam (Dunrossness), and Scalloway, in Shetland. I
visited Kirkwall, in Orkney, for the purpose of examining certain
witnesses now residing there with regard to the condition of Fair
Island, which was inaccessible at the time of my journey. Sittings
were also held in Edinburgh for the examination of a few
witnesses residing there.

Public notice by printed bills was given of all meetings, and
circulars were also sent to all clergymen, schoolmasters, and
landed proprietors, and to all persons in the fishcuring and hosiery
trades. Evidence was received from almost all who tendered it,
from a large number of persons suggested or put forward by
employers of labour and purchasers of hosiery goods and fish, and
from many witnesses who were selected and cited.

________________________

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF SHETLAND.

The Shetland Islands are upwards of a hundred in number,
varying in size from the Mainland, which is about seventy miles in
length and thirty at its greatest breadth, to small rocks not even
affording pasturage to sheep. The outlines of all the islands, as
shown on the accompanying map are very irregular, long bays or
voes indenting them so deeply that no point is more than three
miles from the sea. The country is hilly, but none of the [Page 2
rpt.] hills are very lofty. Twenty-eight of the islands are inhabited;
some of the smaller islands containing only two, or in some cases
only one family. The population in 1861 was 31,670, viz. 18,617
females, and 13,053 males. The population in 1871 was 31,605,
viz. 18,525 females, and 13,080 males. The census is taken at a
time of the year when many men who are sailors in the merchant
service are absent from their homes, which they visit once a year
or oftener. At the last census there were 6,494 families, 5,740
inhabited houses, 220 vacant houses, and 10 houses building.

The Agricultural Returns for Great Britain for 1871 state the
number of occupiers of land in Shetland, from whom returns
have been obtained, at 3992, occupying on an average thirteen
acres each. The total acreage under all kinds of crops, bare,
fallow, and grass, is given as 50,454 acres in 1870, and 50,720 in
1871, of which, in the latter year, 11,626 acres were under corn
crops, 3,493 under green crops (2,909 being potatoes), 522 under
clover and grasses under rotation, and 33,227 permanent pasture,
meadow, or grass not broken up in rotation, exclusive of heath
or mountain land. The total number of horses returned to the
Statistical Department, as on 25th June 1871, was 5,354; of cattle
21,735; of sheep, 86,834; and of pigs, 5,251.
_________________

SOCIAL STATE.

The 'toons,' or townships, in which the peasantry of Shetland
live, are generally situated along the margins of the voes, or
far-stretching inland bays which intersect the country; and
although in some districts they extend into the valleys running into
the interior, they are almost always within a short distance from
the sea. It is natural, therefore, that the Shetlander should be a
fisherman or a sailor; and for two centuries it appears that he has
generally combined the occupations of farming and fishing. The
following description of the rural polity of Shetland, taken from
Dr. Arthur Edmonstone's View of the Ancient and Present State of
the Zetland Islands (2 vols. 8vo, Edin. 1809), is for the most part
applicable at the present day.

'The enclosed land in Zetland is divided into what are called
merks and ures. A merk, it is said, should contain 1600 square
fathoms, and an ure is the eighth part of a merk; but the merks are
everywhere of unequal dimensions, and scarcely two are of the
same size. The oldest rentals state the number of merks to be
about 13,500, and those of the present time make them no more.
A considerable portion, however, of common has been enclosed
and cultivated since the appearance of the first rentals, although
not included in them. When a part of the common is enclosed and
farmed, the enclosure is called an outset; but the outsets are never
included in the numeration of merks of rental land. From these
circumstances it is very difficult to ascertain the actual quantity of
cultivated ground in Zetland.

'The enclosures are made, generally, in the neighbourhood of
the sea, and contain from 4 to 70 merks, which are frequently the
property of different heritors, and are always subdivided among
several tenants. Such place is called a town or a room, and each
has a particular name.

'The uncultivated ground outside of the enclosure is called the
scatthold, and is used for general pasture, and to furnish turf for
firing. Every tenant may rear as many sheep, cattle, or horses, on
the general scatthold attached to the town in which his farm lies as
he can. There is no restriction on this head, whether he rent a
large or a small farm. If there be no moss in the scatthold
contiguous to his farm, the tenant must pay for the privilege to cut
peat in some other common, and this payment is called
It seldom exceeds 3s. per annum.

'The kelp shores and the pasture islands are seldom or never
let to the tenant along with the land; these the landholder retains in
his own hands. In some parts of Zetland, particularly in the island
of Unst, the proprietor furnishes the tenant, gratis, with a house,
barn, and stable, which he also keeps in a state of repair. In other
parts of the country this expense is divided between them, but the
chief proportion of it always falls on the landholder.

'The quantity of land farmed by a tenant varies from 3 to 12
merks, and sometimes more; but the average number to each
may be taken at 5. In a few instances regular leases are granted,
and some of them for a great number of years; but these are
comparatively rare. In the great majority of cases, nothing more
takes place than a verbal agreement on the part of the tenant to
occupy a farm under certain conditions, for one year only, at the
expiration of which both he and the landholder consider
themselves at perfect liberty to enter on a new engagement ....

'The rents are paid in cash and various articles of country produce,
such as fish, butter, oil, etc.; and the amount of the rent varies,
according as the tenant has the exclusive disposal of his labour or
agrees to fish to his landholder. In the former case, the probable
profits on the sale of fish and the other articles of produce are
estimated, and the lands are let at their full value. In the latter
case, or where the tenant fishes to the landholder, he comes under
an agreement to deliver to him his fish, butter,* and oil, at a
certain price, and then the lands are let at a considerably reduced
rate. This system, where there is a reciprocity of profit between
the landholder and the tenant, is by far the most general, and the
practice is immemorial in Zetland.

'The merks are divided into different classes, such as

, and merks. These are
arbitrary numbers, employed to designate certain differences in
the rents of the merks, according to their size and produce. Thus
nine-penny merks should be more valuable than six-penny merks,
and twelve-penny more so than nine-penny. But these distinctions,
although rounded, no doubt, originally on real differences, are at
present very inaccurate measures of the relative value of the
different classes of merks; for sometimes happens that a six-penny
merk is as large and productive as a twelve-penny one. . .

'The lands in the different towns generally lie, ,
intimately mingled together, which not only [Page 3 rpt.] creates
frequent disputes, but prevents the more industrious tenants from
making smaller enclosures...

'The ground is divided into what is called and
. The outfield is the land which has been last brought
into a state of cultivation, and in most parts the soil is mossy. It is
sown generally with oats. The infield, on the contrary, has been
long in a state of culture, and it produces barley, called in Zetland
bear, and potatoes. The outfield is seldom well drained, although
it might be easily done without any additional trouble or expense.
Thus, when cutting peat for fuel, which is often done within the
dyke, instead of doing this in parallel lines, leaving a considerable
space between them to become a future corn-field, the people cut
in every direction, disfigure the ground, and very often form
reservoirs for water to accumulate in. The outfield is allowed to
remain fallow for one, and sometimes two years in succession, but
the infield is generally turned over every year.'** [Vol. i p. 147
sqq.]

* This does not accurately describe the present mode of paying
rents. The rent is always nominally a money rent, although it may
be paid in account, as will afterwards be shown
** It would be out of place to make extensive quotations from this
valuable work. But I refer to it as containing discussions the social
state of Shetland, showing that many of the questions involved in
the present inquiry required an answer seventy years ago. See also
Hibbert's (Edin. 1822)

The enclosed lands were formerly runrig, held by the
inhabitants of the township in scattered allotments, at different
places within the dyke or enclosing wall,-the allotments
being made, apparently, in such a manner as to give the tenants
equal shares of the different qualities of land. In late years,
however, much progress is said to have been made in dividing the
farms and throwing the ground of each tenant into one lot. [J.S.
Houston, 9654; W. Stewart, 8992; A. Sandison, 9993.]

DWELLINGS.

The following description of the Shetland hut or cottage is
written by Dr. Arthur Mitchell, now one of the Commissioners of
Lunacy for Scotland, a very accurate and careful observer
(Appendix to the Second Report of the General Board of
Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland, 1860):-

'The Shetland cottage or hut is of the rudest description. It is
usually built of undressed stone, with a cement of clay or turf.
Over the rafters is laid a covering of pones, divots, or flaas,* and
above this again a thatch of straw, bound down with ropes of
heather, weighted at the ends with stones, as a protection against
the high winds which are so prevalent. Chimneys and windows
are rarely to be seen. One or more holes in the roof permit the
escape of the smoke, and at the same time admit light. Open
doors, the thatched roof, and loose joinings everywhere, insure a
certain ventilation, without which the dwellings would often be
more unhealthy than many in the lanes of our large cities. To this,
there is no doubt, we must attribute the comparative absence of
fever, the occasional presence of which, I think, is greatly due to
that violation of the plainest law of nature, the box-bed. This evil
is often intensified in Shetland by having the beds arranged in tiers
one above the other, in ship fashion, with the apertures of access
reduced to the smallest possible size.

'Drainage is wholly unattended to, and the dunghill is invariably
found at the very door. As the house is entered, the visitor first
comes upon that part allotted to the cattle, which in summer are
out night and day, but in winter are chiefly within doors. Their
dung is frequently allowed to accumulate about them; and I was
told that this part of the house is sometimes used by the family in
winter as a privy. Passing through the byre, the human habitation
is reached. The separation between it and the part for the cattle is
ingeniously effected by an arrangement of the furniture, the bed
chiefly serving for this purpose. The floor is of clay, and the fire is
nearly always in the middle of it ....

'In some respects, however, the Zetland dwellings stand a
favourable comparison with those of the Western Islands.
There is a bareness and desolation about the misery of a Harris
house that is tenfold more depressing. It is a poor house and an
empty one - a decaying, mouldy shell, without the pretence of a
kernel. Whereas in Zetland there is usually a certain fulness.
There are bulky sea-chests, with smaller ones on the top of them;
chairs, with generally an effort at an easy one; a wooden bench, a
table, beds, spades, fishing-rods, baskets, and a score of other little
things, which help, after all, to make it a domus. The very teapot,
in Zetland always to be found at the fireside, speaks of home and
woman, and reminds one of the sobriety of the people - that very
important difference between them and the inhabitants of the
Hebridean islands. I think the Zetlanders, too, are more
intelligent, and more inclined to be industrious, and give greater
evidence of the tendency to accumulate or provide.

'Instead of describing the house occupied by each patient, I
have given this general account of the average Zetland dwelling,
and then, in my individual reports, I have spoken of the special
houses as of, above, or below the average.'

*Different terms signifying varieties of sod.

Since 1860, the dwellings of the people have undergone
considerable improvement, especially in the more advanced
districts, such as Unst; but the description given of them by Dr.
Cowie,* the latest writer on Shetland and himself a Shetlander,
and my own observation so far as it went, enables me to state
that Dr. Mitchell's description of the average cottage of the
fisherman-farmer is still substantially correct. Cottages to which
the description exactly applies may be found within a mile of
Lerwick. In Lerwick, the capital, the poorer dwellings are, to say
the least, not better than those of the same class in other towns of
its size. [D. Edmonstone, 10,683; Rev. W. Smith, 10,718; Dr.
Cowie, 14,745.]

*l. By Robert Cowie,
M.A., M.D., Aberdeen. 1871. See p. 91. Edmonstone's the Zetland Islands>, vol. ii., p. 48. the Shetland Islands>, p. 138.
______________________________

THE LING FISHERY.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF FISHING.

It is necessary to distinguish the terms which are somewhat
loosely used in speaking of the different kinds of fishing carried on
in Shetland. The home or summer fishing, when that term is used
in its widest sense, includes all the fishing for ling, cod, tusk,
[Page 4 rpt.] and seath prosecuted in open boats, whether of six
oars, or of a smaller size such as are still used for the seath fishery
at Sumburgh. The 'haaf fishery' is, in the greater part of Shetland,
synonymous with the home or summer fishery, being distinguished
from it only where, as at Sumburgh, seath fishing is prosecuted in
summer in the smaller open boats. 'Haaf' is 'the deep sea - the
fishing of cod, ling, and tusk.'* This fishery is also generically
known as the ling fishing, because, though, considerable quantities
of tusk and cod are also caught at the haaf, ling is by far the most
important part of its produce. The term 'cod fishing' is sometimes
applied to what is usually called the 'Faroe fishing', which is
prosecuted in large smacks in the vicinity of the Faroe Islands, and
in autumn as far north as Iceland. On the west coast of the
mainland, the 'cod fishing'- or 'home cod fishing' as it is called,
to distinguish it from the Faroe fishing - is carried on, though
now to a comparatively trifling extent, in smacks of a smaller size,
at banks to the south-west of Shetland. The 'winter fishing' is
prosecuted in small boats of four oars, which belong entirely to the
men engaged in it, the fish being generally cured by themselves, or
sold to any merchant they please for a price fixed and paid in
money or goods at the time.

* Edmonstone's Dialect> (Edin. 1866.)

FISHING TENURE FORMERLY EXISTING.

The ling and tusk fishery is the oldest of the existing fishing
industries of Shetland. It appears in the seventeenth century to
have been in the hands of Dutch merchants and shipowners, who
supplied the natives with the means of fishing; cured, or at least
dried, the fish on the beaches; and carried it to Holland. It is said
that the proprietors of Shetland were first induced about the
beginning of the eighteenth century to take the ling fishing into
their own hands, supplying their tenants with materials, and
receiving the fish at a stipulated rate.* The system which grew up
after this change is referred to by Dr. Adam Smith,** and appears
to have been in full vigour in at least one part of Shetland but a
few years ago. It is thus described by a witness, William Stewart,
as it existed till 1862 in Whalsay, where he was a tenant of the late
Mr. Bruce of Simbister:-

'8978. What rent did you pay there?-The rent I always paid for
my ground was 26s.'
'8979. Did you fish for Mr. Bruce at that time?-Yes, for the late
Mr. William Bruce.'
'8980. And you had an account with him at the shop in
Whalsay?-Yes.'
'8981. How did you pay your rent?-Generally by fishing.'
'8982. Was it put into your account?-Yes. The thing was carried
on on a very strange system. Our land was put in to us at a low
rent, and our fish were taken from us at as low a value. The prices
for the fish never varied, either for the spring or summer.'
'8983. Do you mean that they were the same every year?-They
were. Whatever they might be in the markets, they were all the
same to us.'
'8984. Had you never the benefit of a rise in the market at all?-
Never.'
'8985. Did you not object to that?-We had just to content
ourselves with it, or leave the place.'
'8986. It was part of your bargain for your land, that you were to
give your fish at a certain rate?-Yes; there were so much of the
fish taken off for the land. That was the first of the fishing. We
got 3s. 4d. a cwt. for ling, 2s. 6d. for tusk, and 20d. for cod, and so
much of each kind of fish was taken off until the land was paid
for; and then the prices were raised to 4s, I think, for ling, 3s. 2d.
for tusk, and 2s. 6d. for cod, for all the rest of the summer fishing.'
'8987. Did you get these prices for a number of years?-I think for
the thirteen years that I was on the station they never varied one
halfpenny for the summer fishing. The prices for the winter
fishing varied a little. Sometimes we would sell the small cod as
low as 2s. 6d, and at other times at 3s.'
'8988. Did you sell the winter fishing for payment at the time, or
did it go into the account too?-It was never put into the account
at all; we just got what we required for it. It was ready payment;
but it was very rarely that we got money for the winter fishing.'
'8989. Did you know at the time that the prices you were paid at
the latter part of the season were lower than the market price of
the fish?-We knew that; but it was just the bargain.'
'8990. Was that the system with all the tenants in Whalsay at that
time?-With every one.'
'8991. When did that system cease?-I think it ceased about a year
after I came here-about 1863.'