Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 2

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, fis.h.i.+ng-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 acc.u.mulate 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. Mitch.e.l.l'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 cla.s.s 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 , vol. ii., p. 48. , p. 138.

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THE LING FISHERY.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF FIs.h.i.+NG.

It is necessary to distinguish the terms which are somewhat loosely used in speaking of the different kinds of fis.h.i.+ng carried on in Shetland. The home or summer fis.h.i.+ng, when that term is used in its widest sense, includes all the fis.h.i.+ng 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 fis.h.i.+ng is prosecuted in summer in the smaller open boats. 'Haaf' is 'the deep sea - the fis.h.i.+ng of cod, ling, and tusk.'* This fishery is also generically known as the ling fis.h.i.+ng, because, though, considerable quant.i.ties of tusk and cod are also caught at the haaf, ling is by far the most important part of its produce. The term 'cod fis.h.i.+ng' is sometimes applied to what is usually called the 'Faroe fis.h.i.+ng', 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 fis.h.i.+ng'- or 'home cod fis.h.i.+ng' as it is called, to distinguish it from the Faroe fis.h.i.+ng - 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 fis.h.i.+ng' 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 (Edin. 1866.)

FIs.h.i.+NG TENURE FORMERLY EXISTING.

The ling and tusk fishery is the oldest of the existing fis.h.i.+ng industries of Shetland. It appears in the seventeenth century to have been in the hands of Dutch merchants and s.h.i.+powners, who supplied the natives with the means of fis.h.i.+ng; 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 fis.h.i.+ng 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 fis.h.i.+ng.'

'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 fis.h.i.+ng. 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 fis.h.i.+ng.'

'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 fis.h.i.+ng. The prices for the winter fis.h.i.+ng 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 fis.h.i.+ng 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 fis.h.i.+ng.'

'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.'

[W. Stewart, 8978; See J.S. Houston, 9727.]

* Edmonstone's , vol. ii., p. 232., Brand's
, etc., pp. 73, 89, 128, 136, etc. (Edin. 1701).

** , b.i.c. xi.

LAND QUESTION CONNECTED WITH TRUCK QUESTION.

It is impossible to separate the question of Truck in Shetland from the land question - (1.) Because Truck, in the form in which it chiefly exists, has arisen out of these old relations between landlords and tenants in the times when the landlords were the princ.i.p.al or the only purchasers and curers of fish; and (2.) because, to a very material extent, the relations between the fish-curer and the fishermen are still subservient and ancillary to the landlord's security for his rent.* That this is so will appear from a description of the ling fishery as it now exists.

* General Observations on Shetland, by Lawrence Edmonstone M.D., in , p. 160 (Edin. 1841)

TACKSMEN AND MERCHANTS.

Although the proprietors may originally have had some concern with all the fis.h.i.+ng of the year, it is in the ling fishery that they till lately occupied, and in some instances still occupy, the position of the old Dutch traders. In this position they have now, for the most part, been succeeded by merchants, who in some instances are tacksmen (or [Page 5 rpt.] 'tacksmasters,'-

[W. Irvine, p. 85.]

MODE OF FIs.h.i.+NG.

The mode of fis.h.i.+ng is similar to the long-line fis.h.i.+ng in the North Sea, described in the Report of the Sea Fisheries Commission, 1866, App. p. 6.

AGREEMENTS AND SETTLEMENTS.

A boat is usually divided into six shares, each of the crew having one share; the proceeds of the fish, after deducting the price or hire of the boat and other expenses incurred on account of the crew, for which the crew is responsible as a company, being also divided into six shares. In some rare cases the shares are fewer, and one or two of the men are hired.

It is an invariable rule that a boat's crew delivers all its fish taken during the summer to the same merchant. In a few cases this arises, as it formerly did almost universally, simply from the fact that the men are all tenants of a proprietor or middle-man, who makes it a condition of their holding their crofts that they shall fish for him. In others, it is the subject of an express or tacit arrangement with a particular fish-curer.

When he delivers his fish, the fisherman does not receive payment for it, nor does he know what price it will bring. The arrangement or understanding is, that the price is to be at the current rate at the end of the season. The season ends, so far as the fis.h.i.+ng is concerned, at or about August 12; but the sales are not made until September and October, when the process of curing is completed. The settlement of the price does not take place till November, December, or January; and in the case of one merchant, it appears to have been more than once delayed to a considerably later period. When a number of crews deliver their fish to the same merchant, especially if he has a number of stations at different parts of the islands, his settlements are considerably protracted. Each crew, as I have said, has got supplies at the fis.h.i.+ng station; it has also got fis.h.i.+ng materials, and it may have to pay the hire, or instalments of the price, of its boat. These are all debited to the crew in a ledger account, kept in the name of the skipper and crew, thus -'John Simpson & Co., Stenness.' The sums due for these items being deducted from the total amount of the boat's fis.h.i.+ng, the balance is divided into shares, which are carried to the private accounts of the several fishermen; for in almost every case the fisherman and his family obtain, during the year, 'supplies' of goods from the shop of the fish-curer. In the great majority of cases there are no pa.s.sbooks for such accounts.

The private account is read over to the fisherman by the fishcurer, or by his shopkeeper, where he does not personally manage that department of his business; and the fisherman being satisfied as to its correctness, or, as it often happens, trusting to the honesty of the merchant, it is settled, any balance due to the fisherman being paid in cash, any balance against him being carried to his debit in a new account. [See below - SETTLEMENTS AND Pa.s.s-BOOKS] THE debit against the fisherman consists-(1.) Of any balance against him in the account of the previous year; (2.) Of goods of various kinds supplied from the store; (3.) Of cash advanced in the course of the year, either to himself personally, or for rent, taxes, or other payments made on his account. It may possibly occur in a bad season, that his share of a balance against the crew with which he has been fis.h.i.+ng may increase his indebtedness; but no case of this kind has been brought under my notice. On the other hand, he is credited with the price of his fish at the current rate, and with the price of any cattle or ponies sold by him to the merchant. The smaller farm produce, such as b.u.t.ter and eggs, although very often sold to the same merchant, does not enter the account, having been paid in goods across the counter, rarely in cash, at the time of delivery.

[See below, p. 24.]

[Page 6 rpt.]

TRUCK.

It thus appears to be quite possible that fishermen should receive the whole of their earnings in shop goods, and I understand that the truth of the allegation that most of the men actually are so paid, and that they have no option but to take goods for their fish, at prices fixed by the merchant, was intended to be the main subject of this inquiry.

COMPLAINTS BY FISHERMEN.

Upon this subject the complaints of the men themselves were not loud or frequent. The only cases in which fishermen came forward voluntarily for the purpose of stating grievances, on hearing of the Commission, were those in which they are bound by their tenure to deliver their fish to the proprietor of the ground, or his tacksman.

As in all these cases they are also supplied with goods from the landlord's or tacksman's shop, it was necessary to hear fully what the men had to say, even although their complaints appeared to involve a question as to the tenure of land, as well as the payment of wages.

FIs.h.i.+NG TENURES.

Complaints on this subject were made by tenants on the estates of Sumburgh and Quendale, in the parish of Dunrossness, and on the island of Burra. It also appeared in the evidence of persons cited, that the obligation exists and is enforced on the estate of Lunna, in the parish of Nesting and Lunnasting; on that of Ollaberry, in Northmaven; on those of Mr. Henderson, Mrs. Budge, Messrs.

Pole & Hoseason, in Yell; in the island of Whalsay, held by Messrs. Hay & Co. from Mr. Bruce of Simbister; on the Gossaburgh estate, in Yell and Northmaven, held by them from Mrs. Henderson Robertson; and in Skerries, of which Mr.

Adie has a tack from Mr. Bruce. On other estates the tenants are nominally free, although it may sometimes be doubtful how far they are able to exercise any choice.

SUMBURGH [Qu. 548 sqq.]

The first witness who came forward to speak of the obligation to deliver the fish to the landlord was Laurence Mail, who was not summoned, and his evidence shows how naturally this grievance is connected with the system of Truck. He says:-

'559. What is the complaint you wish to make?-There is one thing we complain of: that we are bound to deliver our fish, wet or green, to the landlord.'

'560. That is, you have to deliver the fish as they are caught?- Yes; of course we have to take out the bowels and cut off the heads: it is the bodies of the fish we give. We think it would be much better if we had liberty to dry the fish ourselves, as we used to do formerly.'

'561. To whom are you bound to give your fish?-To Mr. Bruce, our landlord.'

'562. Is he a fish-curer or fish-merchant?-Yes.'

'563. Is it Mr. Bruce or his son that you are speaking of?-It is young Mr. Bruce. He is the landlord or tack-master. His father is alive; but I think young Mr. Bruce has got power from his father to engage the tenants according to his own pleasure.'