The prices charged here are much too high; and this arises not
merely from the want of the check of competition, as regards the
men thirled to the shop by want of money to deal elsewhere, but
also from the very peculiar way in which the prices are fixed. This
may possibly be explained by the fact that neither Mr. Bruce nor
his shopkeeper have been properly trained to the business of the
shop, which has been taken up as an appendage of the fish trade.
Gilbert Irvine, the shopkeeper, was unable to give any very clear
explanation of the way in which the price of meal at Grutness is
fixed, and why the men never knew the price of it until the
settlement. [G. Irvine, 13,173.] But Mr. Bruce says:
'13,306. In what way do you fix the average price of meal for the
year?--We take what other people are charging in Lerwick and
elsewhere; and after considering the quality of the meal, and our
extra expense upon it, we charge what we think it can reasonably
bring, without any regard to the cost price of it.'
'13,307. Do you not take the cost price into consideration at all?-
Of course it is an element, but not the principal element, in fixing
the price.'
This loose method of proceeding may account for the complaints
of the price made by all the men, who were quite satisfied with the
quality. No man deals at the store at Grutness who can possibly
get money to buy his goods elsewhere, and Mr. Bruce himself
speaks of the shop as a necessity for the fishing, and not a source
of profit in itself. The price of meal was ascertained by William
Goudie to be at least 3s. per boll above, the price elsewhere.
There is also at Grutness an ambiguity about weight -pecks being
sold by 'lispund weight,' <i.e.> 4 to 32 lbs., instead of boll weight,
<i.e.> 4 to 35 lbs. = quarter boll. The price of oatmeal for the
whole of 1870 was 22s. at Grutness, which was the highest price it
attained in Lerwick for a very short time after the breaking out of
the French war. During by far the greater part of the year, it varied
at Lerwick from 17s. 3d. to 19s. It is instructive to compare the price
at Grutness with a note of the prices charged by Mr. Gavin
Henderson at Scousbrough, three miles distant, where no
fishermen are bound to the shopkeeper or engaged by him. This
note (p. 319 of Evidence) brings out an average of 18s. 3d. per boll
on all Mr. Henderson's sales for that year. Comparison of Mr.
Henderson's note of prices for that year with Mr. Charles
Robertson's (p. 378), shows that a merchant carrying on business
twenty miles from Lerwick can sell his meal as cheaply as
merchants there are in the practice of doing. Mr. Bruce's own
invoices show that his meal for the season 1870 was purchased at
an average price of 16s. 8d. per boll, and that out of the whole
supply of 171 bolls, all but 25 bolls was bought at 16s. 3d. and
under. The freight from Aberdeen to Grutness he states to be 1s.
5d. per boll. Thus 16s. 8d. +1s. 5d. = 18s. 1d., leaving 3s. 11d. for
profit and risk, or about 22 per cent. But Mr. Bruce explains that,
as his shop is not conducted on purely commercial principles, but
as an auxiliary to the fishing, this is all required to cover expenses
of management. It is nevertheless very expensive for the retail
purchasers. 2 lb. lines at Grutness are sold for 2s. 2d.; at Mr.
Henderson's, for 2s. Tea, of which Shetlanders consume a large
quantity, and of which they are said to be good judges, is said
by one witness to be from 4d. to 8d. dearer per lb. at Boddam,
where there is a shop of Mr. Bruce's, than at Lerwick or Gavin
Henderson's, a shop in the neighbourhood; cotton to be 2d. a yard
dearer, and tobacco 1d. or 2d. a quarter lb. The evidence of Mr.
Charles Fleming shows that some cotton stuffs, pieces of which
were obtained at the shop at Grutness, and which were said by Mr.
Irvine to be sold at 41/2d., 8d., and 1s. a yard respectively, were
worth in retail very much less than these prices.
[J. Bruce, jun., H. Mailand, 4858; W. Goudie, 4317; G. Irvine, 13,
259; J. Brown, 5300; H. Gilbertson, 4551; C. Robertson, 15,040; J.
Robertson, sen., 14,587; T. Aitken, 4833; G. Irvine, 13,224; J.
Bruce, jun., 13, 319; G. Irvine, 13,291; R. Henderson, 12,877; R.
Halcrow, 4663; C. Fleming, 17,042; G. Irvine, 13,200.]