Although payment in goods, or in account, of work done with the
merchants' wool may be held to be an offence under the existing
law, the custom of barter has so long existed in Shetland, and is so
thoroughly interwoven with the habits of the people, that the
question has never been raised in the local courts, and it does not
even appear to have occurred to merchants that they might be held
to infringe the law. In regard to both branches of the trade, the
sale or barter of the knitted articles, and the employment of
women to knit them, evidence has been freely given by the
merchants themselves.
In both branches of the trade, it is the custom and understanding of
the country, from Unst to Dunrossness, that payment shall be made
in goods. Formerly money payment was never thought of. Of late,
however, the custom of giving a portion of the payment in cash
has, according to Mr. Laurenson and other merchants, been
increasing. But this alleged increase is, I think, so slight as to be
hardly worth mentioning, except in regard to the very highest class
of articles. These the merchants are anxious to get, and the
women who knit them have learned to demand payment of the
whole or a portion of the price in money. There are few knitters,
however, of this class, and some of them sell their work out of
Shetland. An effort was made by some merchants to show that
money had, in some cases, been paid for hosiery; but the few cases
in which sums of any amount were so paid, and the smallness of
the payments (3d., 6d., and 1s.) which, in all but one or two
exceptional cases, appear in the women's accounts, only prove
how strictly the rule is observed that all hosiery transactions are to
be settled in goods. The cases are too numerous to be specified in
which women say that they never get money, because it is a thing
the merchants never give, and that they never ask for it; or that
they asked for it once, and being refused, did not apply again. I
give a single example. Margaret Williamson says:
'8314. Do you always get goods for your knitting?-Yes; I get
goods, because I can get nothing else.'
'8315. Do you want to get money?-I hardly ever ask for money. I
asked for a penny the last time out of 35s., and they refused to give
it to me. I bought all that I could buy out of the work I had taken
in, and when it came to the last penny I asked for it, but they
would not give it. That was at Mr. Linklater's.'
'8316. What did he say he would give it in: sweeties?-No; they
would not keep any sweeties for fear of having to give them.'
'8317. What did they give you?-They gave me the penny at
length, but they said we must take goods.'
[A. Laurenson, 2136, 2168; R. Sinclair, 2399; C. Brown, 17,026; J.
Anderson, 6645; R. Sinclair, 2440; W. Johnstone, 2836; J.J. Bruce,
3384; R. Sinclair, 2436; A. Eunson, 3422; C. Winwick, 15; E.
Robertson, 238; A. Simpson, 313; B. Johnstone, 379; Janet Irvine,
87; M. Clunas, 3459; C. Williamson, 165; Jemima Tait, 354; E.
Paterson, 6460; M. Hughson, 6347.]
Knitters who sell their goods to the shopkeepers have not always
an account in their books; perhaps, indeed, it may be said that, in a
majority of cases in Lerwick, they have not. It is different in the
country. But as it may often happen that a woman who brings a
fine shawl or a lot of veils for sale does not want the whole value
in goods at the time, or cannot make up her mind as to the
particular article she will take, a balance of the price often stands
over. The merchant will not give cash, unless it has been so
specially agreed beforehand, for he would thereby lose the
expected profit on his goods sold; and the knitter never thinks of
offering to pay a discount for money. The balance is therefore
(where the knitter has not an account) marked down in some
corner of the day-book, or a line or voucher is given. The latter
device has been adopted to a large extent in some shops. The most
perfect, and perhaps the most extensive system of lines, is that in
use in the shop of Messrs. R. Sinclair & Co. at Lerwick. This firm
does not wish, they say, to give out lines, but would prefer that the
women should take out the value at once. They have, however,
been obliged to give lines; and they keep a line-book as a check,
which was produced at the examination of Mr. R. Sinclair. This
he stated to be the second book of the same kind which he had
used since he perfected the system. It is a register of all the lines
issued at the shop, and begins at the top of the first page, thus: