Advances by the fish-curer to fishermen, in the form of boats and
fishing materials, form a very material portion of the debits in the
men's accounts. For the most part the boats used in the ling
fishing belong to the men. It is generally understood that when a
crew gets a new boat, it is to be paid up in three years. Sometimes
a good fishing enables them to pay it the first year; more
frequently the payment extends beyond the three years-generally
for five fishing seasons. The price of the boat is charged against
the crew, which has a company account in the merchant's books,
and they are labourers jointly and severally liable for the whole.
When a boat is furnished, it is always understood that the men are
to continue to fish for the merchant who furnishes it until the
whole price is paid; and this of course constitutes a bond over the
men for three or more years, as the case may be. Sometimes hire
is charged for the boat, or for the boat and lines. A new boat,
ready for sea, costs £20; if supplied with new lines, the whole cost
will be from £35 to £40. The men agree to pay £6 as hire for boat
and lines, or £2 to £3 for the boat, for the period of the summer
fishing. In Yell and other places, the merchant, for this hire,
undertakes the risk of the whole. On the west coast of Shetland,
the rate charged as hire and the amount of the annual instalment of
the price of the boat and lines appear to be the same; and the lines,
if lost, are understood, it is said, to be at the risk of the men in both
cases, which is an inversion of the ordinary rule of law in location.
It is generally said that little or no profit is derived by merchants
from boat hires or the sale of boats. In some places, however,
those who are anxious to get into business make deductions from
the boat hire; in order to get men to agree to fish to depending
entirely for their profit on the fish and goods sold. Hence it may
be inferred, either that the hires charged are sufficient to
remunerate the merchant for his outlay and risk, or that the profits
made from the fish and goods sold are so large as to allow of this
bonus being given.
[W. Irvine, 3838; T.M. Adie, 5607; T. Tulloch, 12,960; G. Irvine,
13,272; O. Jamieson, 13,396; P.M. Sandison, 5206; T.M. Adie,
5610; W. Pole, 5881, 5890, 5953; D. Greig, 7125, 7153, 7209; L.
Williamson, 9092; John Laurenson, 9856; T. Tulloch, 12,958; A.
Johnson, 14,933; T.M. Adie, 5638, 5642; P. Peterson, 6808; A.
Sandison, 10,133; C. Nicholson, 11,950; L. Williamson, 9092; T.
Williamson, 9514.]
With regard to lines and hooks, and such things as the men require
for the fishing, they are bound or expected at most places to buy
them from the merchant for whom they fish.
[J. Robertson, 8454; P. Blanch, 8717.]
Turning from the debit to the credit side of the account between
the curer and the fisherman, the most important branch of the
latter is the price of the fish. This is fixed in Shetland only when
the annual sales of cured fish have been effected, <i.e.> in
September or October. The understanding is that the men shall get
the current price. This is not ascertained in any formal way; but as
there is little difference between the prices obtained by the various
curers, each calculates for himself how much he can afford to give
to the crews for the green fish, and pays accordingly. There is
always, of course, some knowledge, more or less vague and
general, of the prices obtained and given by other curers, and
there may be a consultation of some kind between the leading
merchants. In some cases, curers, especially those who are in a
small way, wait until the leading merchants have settled with their
men, and thus avoid questions with their men. In all cases the men
hear how much their neighbours have got for their green fish; and
it may be supposed that there is sufficient competition for men to
ensure that the highest possible sum will be given. The fishermen
themselves, however, do not seem to be satisfied of this, and there
is an impression among some of them that 'the current price' of
green fish is fixed by arrangement among the merchants at a lower
rate than they might afford. This belief has originated, or has been
encouraged, by the fact that the dealers of Cunningsburgh, in
Sandwick parish, have for some years paid considerably more than
'the current price.' In 1871, the usual payment to fishermen was
8s. per cwt. of wet fish, which was thus ascertained: 21/4 cwt. of
wet fish are calculated to produce [Page 20 rpt.] cwt dry. The
current price of dry fish was 23s. per cwt.; cost of curing is usually
estimated at 2s. 6d. per cwt. dry (or by Mr. Irvine at 3s.). Thus:-
Price of 21/2- cwt. wet ling, at 8s., 18s. 0d.
Cost of curing, at 2s. 6d., 2s. 6d.
Merchants' profit and commission, 2s. 6d., 2s. 6d.
Total, 23s.
or about 11 per cent.* Merchants say that the cost of curing is
actually greater than 2s. 6d. per cwt., and that their profit has to
cover not only the risk of bad debts and insurance, but likewise
a loss upon boat hires and sales, which never remunerate.
Fishermen, on the other hand, assert that curing never costs so
much as 2s. 6d. per cwt.; and they appeal, in support of this, not only
to their experience in curing their own fish, but to the higher
rates paid by Messrs. Smith & Tulloch in Sandwick parish The
reply, as regards these merchants, is that they sell to retail
merchants direct, and thus save profit of the middlemen or
wholesale purchasers; but there is evidently a feeling of irritation
among other fishcurers, because they have broken in upon the
practice of paying a uniform price throughout the islands. A
similar question with regard to the cost of curing has been raised
in the Faroe fishing.
[L.F.U. Garriock, 12,581; W. Irvine, 3742; J.L. Pole, 9423; J.
Bruce, jun., 13,332; J. Flawes, 4919; A.J. Grierson, 15,105; L.
Williamson, 9085; A. Sandison, 10,154; L. Williamson, 9097; T.
Williamson, 9515, 9536; L. Mail, 662; R. Halcrow, 4694; G.
Blance; 5561; A. Sandison, 7062; J. Nicholson, 8721; J. Flawes,
4990; J.S. Houston, 9673; W. Irvine, 3623; W. Pole, 5882 sqq.;
J.S. Houston, 9698; A. Sandison, 10,125; W. Robertson, 13, 646;
L.F.U. Garriock, 12,565.]
Some men complain because they do not know what they are
to get for their fish and that they 'work away as if they were blind;'
but it is said on in a few cases where a price has been fixed at the
beginning of the season and the price that has risen, the men have
grumbled, and the curer has been obliged to pay the higher current
price in order to retain the future services of the men. There is
not, however, sufficient evidence to justify the conclusion that
Shetland fishermen would, as a body, resent a merchant's
adherence to a bargain which on other occasions must turn out to
be a favourable one for themselves and a losing one for him. If
there is any advantage in the present system, it is, as the Rev. Mr.
Fraser points out, on the side of the fisherman, who is less able
than the merchant to foresee the probable course of the market,
and who, if the suggested change were adopted, would have to
take, in the run of cases, such a price as the merchant might judge
safe for himself.
[James Hay, 5375; A.J. Grierson, 15,081; P. Garriock, 15,228; J. S.
Houston, 9862; A. Sandison, 10,009; Rev. J. Fraser, 8071, but see P.
Blanch, 8546.]
*CURERS' PROFITS.
Mr. Irvine (3623) says the prices of last year leave only
40s. per ton to the curer, out of which he has to pay store rent,
weighing, skippers' fees, gratuities to fishermen, and to meet loss
by small and damaged fish, and of interest and risk. The total
quantity of cod, ling, and hake landed from open boats and cured
in Shetland in the year ending 31st December 1871, according
to the returns made to the Fisheries Board, was 46,391 cwt.
If we suppose that the expenses which are to be paid out of the
fishcurers' 2s. per cwt. amount to 6d. per cwt., there remains a
sum of £3479, 6s. 8d., as the total profit earned by thirty-seven
fish-curers and fish-curing firms. If we suppose that these
expenses absorb 1s. of this surplus, then the total profit amounts
only to £2319, 11s. It may be observed, however that other
sources of profit are open to these fish-curers. All of them have
shops, in which the aggregate credit sales to fishermen amounted
in the year 1871 (from settlement to settlement) to probably
£14,000. A considerable amount of cash transactions, and sales of
goods for butter and eggs, also take place at their counters; and
many of them deal in cattle and kelp, and are engaged in the Faroe
fishing. With all these sources of income, however, it is difficult
to believe that no larger direct profit per cent. is earned from so
complicated and hazardous a business as the ling fishing.