11,761. Did you sell your things often in that way?-Yes, very often.
11,762. Every month?-I don"t think I did it every month.
11,763. Did you do it two or three times every year?-Yes; oftener than that.
11,764. How much goods did you sell in that way?-If I sold a shawl for about 18s. I would get 18s. worth of goods, and of that a good deal was tea-perhaps one pound or a pound and a half.
11,765. Would you sell all that tea?-Yes.
11,766. And something else besides?-I don"t recollect of selling anything else except the tea.
11,767. Did you always bring home some tea from Lerwick in order to sell it?-Yes.
11,768. And did you always find some of your neighbours ready to buy it?-Yes; there were always some of them kind enough to buy it from me.
11,769. Did you sell it at the full price that it had cost you?-Yes.
11,770. You did not sell it under its value?-No.
11,771. You did that very often, because you had no other way of getting money?-Yes.
11,772. Do you ever get any lines from the merchants in Lerwick?-No.
11,773. Do you always settle for your hosiery articles at once?- Yes.
11,774. Would you rather have money than be paid for your work in the way you have mentioned?-Yes, I would rather have money; but we knew that we would not get it, and therefore we never asked it.
11,775. Do you think you could make a better use of the money than you do of the goods?-Yes, a great deal better.
11,776. You think you could turn it to better account?-Yes.
11,777. Do you think you take more out in soft goods than you require?-We often take out things which we are not requiring.
We cannot get anything else and therefore we have just to take out the goods.
11,778. Can you mention anything which you have taken out when you were not requiring it?-No. I afterwards sold it; I did not keep it.
11,779. What are the goods you have sold?-Cottons.
11,780. Anything else?-No; but I have not sold any cotton for the last twelve months.
11,781. Did you ever sell cotton or any other goods under the price you paid for them?-No, I generally got the value. I did not sell these things about Scalloway; I went up occasionally to see some friends of mine in the west side of Sandsting, and I took the goods with me.
Scalloway, January 22, 1872, WILLIAM HARCUS, examined.
11,782. You are a merchant in Scalloway?-Yes; I have a small business here. I have carried on business as a merchant here for between four and five years.
11,783. Have you many transactions with the fishermen here?-I have, in buying and selling groceries and general goods, but not in curing fish.
11,784. Do you run any accounts with fishermen?-No; unless perhaps for a few days, until they come back again to settle. It could not be said that I do credit trade. It is professedly a cash trade.
11,785. Have you any disadvantages in carrying on your trade from the system of barter which prevails in Shetland?-Perhaps if the whole trade were done in cash, there might be some advantages in some respects-that is to say, if there was money always coming to the fishermen at the end of the season, or when the settlement takes place.
11,786. If that were so, you think a merchant carrying on a cash business would be able to increase his receipts?-I think so.
11,787. Is it your opinion, from your own experience, that a ready-money business is limited by the want of money in the hands of the fishermen and tenants in the district?-I think it is.
I think if there was money there would be more trade done in a ready-money way than there is.
11,788. Are you aware that very little money, compared with the amount of their earnings, pa.s.ses into the hands of the fishermen?-I have no means of knowing that exactly; but I don"t see much money, among the fishermen. What money we get is princ.i.p.ally from sailors returning from the south, and, of course, a little from the fishermen after settling time.
11,789. Do you find that your business is larger after settling time than at other times?-Last year it was larger, because there was a good Faroe fishing. This year I don"t think there has been any difference.
11,790. Do your books show that there is a larger [Page 289] cash business done after settling time?-No, my books don"t show that.
I don"t enter cash transactions in them.
11,791. How do you know that the business was larger at that time?-Just by noticing the daily or weekly drawings.
11,792. Did you keep notes of your weekly drawings?-I did at one time, but I have been so busy lately, and so much away from home, that I have not got that attended to.
11,793. How long is it since you kept notes of your weekly drawings which would show whether your business increased or not in the spring?-I think it was only in the first year that I was in business that I did so; but I can recollect pretty well about the average amount of my weekly drawings. In a small business like mine we can depend a good deal upon the memory for that.
11,794. And so far as your recollection serves you, you think your weekly drawings were larger at that period?-Yes. When there has been a good fishing, and the men have something to get at the settlement our drawings are usually larger after that.
11,795. Do you think that shows that the men prefer, when they have money in their hands, to deal with you rather than to deal with the fish merchant who employs them?-I don"t think it does; at least I could not say that it does, because the fish merchant who employs them might be having a larger cash return at that time too.
11,796. At all events you may fairly entertain the opinion that you would have a better chance among the fishermen if a cash system were general?-I think so.
11,797. If, for example, the fishermen were paid by weekly, or fortnightly, or monthly payments, for their fish delivered during the summer, do you think you would be more likely to obtain an additional share of their custom?-If that were possible, I might; but I don"t think it would be possible to pay them at such short periods, because it would occupy so much time. The fishermen would have to come in and wait perhaps whole days before they could be settled with, and I don"t think that would be a good plan for them at all.
11,798. If a note of the fish is taken at the time when they are delivered, would there be any difficulty in settling at the same time?-I never considered that; but I think there would be a difficulty in settling with the fishermen every day when they landed their fish.
11,799. In winter and spring they are settled with every time they deliver fish?-Yes; but the quant.i.ty delivered then is comparatively small. Sometimes in summer the fishermen are working ten or twelve miles away from where the curer is, and of course, to come in and be settled with every week, or even every month, would be a great hardship. They might lose very good days when they could be more profitably employed at the fishing. I think quarterly or half-yearly settlements would be as much as could be managed.
11,800. You have not had any experience yourself in settling with fishermen, either before you began business here or since?-No. I have a few men fishing lobsters, but they are not worth speaking about. I think there are only three crews" of them, and I settle always with them when they bring up their fish; but the trade is so small that there is no difficulty in settling with them then.
11,801. How long does that fishing last?-It is only carried on during the winter; and it was arranged that they should come fortnightly with the lobsters, and settle fortnightly, when the weather would permit them.
11,802. Do you do anything in the oyster fishery?-I did at one time, and I still do a little, but there are very few to be had.
11,803. How are they paid for?-In cash when I buy them.
11,804. Do you know what is the practice of other buyers-I would rather that they should state that themselves. I think Mr.
Nicholson buys for cash, but I am not certain. He is present.
11,805. When you settle for your lobsters, where is the payment made?-In my shop.
11,806. In that case do the men generally spend part of the cash there and then?-They sometimes spend part of it.
11,807. Do they not spend part of it generally?-Yes; but I lay down the money on the counter, and they take it up. They have the choice either of spending it or taking it away.