1895. How much will you make in a month or in a week in that
way?-I could not exactly say. It takes a good long time to make a
nice shawl.
1896. Is it mostly shawls you make?-Yes.
1897. Will it take a month to make a shawl which is worth £1?-
Yes. I have other things to do, and cannot keep constantly at it.
1898. But you do make one shawl a month or there about?-Yes.
1899. So that your dealings in that way will come perhaps £12 or
£14 a year?-They will be more than that. I would reckon that
they would be about £15.
1900. Would that all be your own knitting?-I could not say that.
Perhaps I might get some one to help me a little with a shawl.
1901. But it would be mostly your own work?-Yes.
Lerwick, January 3, 1872, MARGARET OLLASON, examined.
1902. Are you in the habit of knitting for merchants in Lerwick?-
No; I knit for myself, and I sell the goods.
1903. How are you paid for them?-I generally make articles for
which I get an order.
1904. From whom?-From ladies who employ me.
1905. Have you never sold to merchants at all?-I have sometimes
sold to Mr. Sinclair.
1906. When you sell to him, are you paid in money?-I have asked
for part of both-money and goods-and I got it.
1907. You did not ask for the whole in money?-No.
1908. Why?-Just because I thought it was not the custom of the
place.
1909. Did you want the whole in money?-No; I was requiring the
goods at the time.
1910. Does it often happen that you sell articles to Mr. Sinclair in
that way?-Yes; I sold him two shawls lately.
1911. How much of the price did you get in money?-The price of
one of the shawls was 35s., and I got 17s. 6d. in money.
1912. Did you ask for that?-Yes.
1913. And you had no difficulty in getting it?-No. I sold the
other shawl for 28s., and I got 8s. in money and £1 in goods.
1914. That was the arrangement that you wanted yourself?-Yes; I
asked it.
1915. You wanted the goods?-Yes.
1916. Would you have made a better bargain by selling these
shawls to a lady in Lerwick, or to a stranger visiting the place?-I
got much the same price from Mr. Sinclair as I had been in the
habit of getting.
1917. Do you sell to visitors, or to ladies in Lerwick, because you
prefer to do that?-We sell to them because we are not requiring
the goods.
1918. And you prefer to sell to them because you wish to get the
money?-Yes.
1919. Do you live with your friends?-I live with my father.
1920. And you buy your own worsted?-Yes.
1921. Where do you buy it?-I get it from the North Isles,-from
Yell.
1922. You get it from people who make it there?-Yes.
1923. Do you generally knit for ladies who have given you an
order, or do you knit your shawl and then seek for a purchaser?-
Sometimes I get an order for shawl and make it, and at other times
I make one and keep it until I get an order.
1924. Is it considered among you who knit, to be a better way of
living that you knit to ladies than to merchants?-Yes.
1925. Do you ever try to dispose of your shawls to visitors who
come to Shetland in the summer?-No, I never did that, for I
generally get orders for them as soon as I have them ready.
1926. Do you know that it is the practice to look out for visitors
in summer, or to send shawls to places such as hotels or
lodging-houses where they stay, in order to get buyers among
them?-I know that is a common thing, but I have never done it.
1927. Is that done because it is a more profitable way of disposing
of the goods than by selling them to the merchants?-I think that
is the reason.
1928. Or is it done because they get money from the visitors or
strangers?-I believe it is because they get money.
1929. Do you get as large a price from a visitor in money as you
get from a merchant in goods?-Yes.
1930. Do you know that from your own experience?-Yes.
1931. You said you had sold a shawl for 35s. to Mr. Sinclair: if
you had sold that shawl to a visitor, or to a lady in Lerwick, or to a
stranger in the summer time, would you have got 35s. for it?-I
would.
1932. Have you got that price for a shawl exactly the same?-Yes;
I have got it from Dr. Hamilton in Bressay, who was requiring it
for a lady.
1933. You sold another shawl for 28s. Could you have got as high
a price in money from a visitor for it as you got in goods from the
merchant?-Yes.
1934. You don't know that there are two prices for shawls,
according as they are paid in money or in goods?-I don't know
that, for I have not experienced it.
1935. Would you have given either of these two shawls you
mentioned for a lower price if you had got the whole price of it in
money?-No; I don't think [Page 38] I could have done it, for I
thought the shawls were worth the price I put upon them.
1936. Don't you think you could have got a higher price than 35s.
for that shawl from a visitor?-I don't think it.
1937. When you sold the shawl to Mr. Sinclair at that price, you
knew that he was buying it for the purpose of selling it again: was
the price which he gave you not something of a wholesale price?-
It was just the price I would have asked any one for it, because it
was just what I thought it was worth. The price I put upon it was
just sufficient to pay me for my worsted and my work.
1938. But Mr. Sinclair must make his profit off the shawl when he
purchased it in order to be re-sold, so that there may be two prices
in that way: do you know anything about that?-No; I don't know
anything about it.
1939. You thought you ought to get at least 35s. for the shawl, and
you were prepared to take as much more as you could get?-Yes.
Lerwick, January 3, 1872, Mrs. BARBARA BOLT, examined.
1940. You are the wife of William Bolt who lives in Lerwick?-
Yes.
1941. Are you in the habit of knitting Mr. Sinclair?-I knit for
myself, but I sell my work to Mr. Sinclair.
1942. You have no pass-book in that way of dealing?-No.
1943. Did you hear Margaret Ollason's evidence?-Yes.
1944. Do you knit the same kind of goods as she does?-No; I
generally knit veils and shawls to Mr. Sinclair.
1945. Do you deal in the same way as she has described?-Yes;
something like the same.
1946. Do you sell to other people than Mr. Sinclair?-No; I
generally sell everything have to him.
1947. When you go to him to sell your work, do you get payment
in money or in goods?-In goods.
1948. Do you prefer that way of dealing; or do you want all
money?-I generally require goods.
1949. Have you a family?-Yes; the goods were wanted for them.
1950. You don't get provisions there: you provide them
otherwise?-Yes.
1951. Do you sometimes ask for money from Mr. Sinclair?-Yes,
I have asked for money, and I got it when I asked it. I have not
sold anything to any other shop for the last fifteen years.
1952. Would you prefer to get money if you could?-I don't know.
If I were getting money, I would just have to buy goods with it, so
that the goods are the same to me as money.
1953. Do you know that any one can get money for their goods if
they want it?-I know there are plenty who get it.
1954. But can any one get whatever money they require for their
goods?-I don't know. I only know that there are many who want
money; but for my own part, I generally ask for goods, and I get
them; and if I require a little money, I always get it.
1955. Do you sometimes get lines?-Yes; and worsted to knit,
which is the same as money.
1956. If you are in want of worsted, do you buy it from Mr.
Sinclair in payment for your shawls?-Yes.
1957. Do you keep any account, or do you just deal across the
counter?-I just get the things as I want them.
1958. You go to the shop and say you want so much worsted as
part of what you are taking?-Yes.
1959. Do you get it at the ordinary price?-Yes; it is just the same
price.
1960. Does your sister-in-law, Mrs. James Bolt, deal in the same
way?-Yes; in the same manner.
1961. And, altogether with Mr. Sinclair?-Yes. We always knit
together, and what hosiery we have we always sell to him.
1962. Do you buy the worsted from Mr. Sinclair exactly in the
same way as you would buy a piece of cotton or a dress?-Yes;
just the same.
1963. The price of the worsted is reckoned up as part of the price
of the shawl that you are selling?-Yes. We get it on a line the
same as the other goods.
1964. Of course: there is no writing: it is just a transaction across
the counter unless there is a line?-Yes.
1965. But if you have a line, and bring it back to the shop in order
to get goods, do you get worsted for it just as you get any other
goods?-Yes; I have got worsted on a line.
1966. Do you know that these transactions are all entered in Mr.
Sinclair's book?-Yes.
1967. You have seen that done?-Yes.
1968. The worsted is entered there as well as the other things?-
Yes.
Lerwick, January 3, 1872, Mrs. WILHELMINA BOLT, examined.
1969. Have you anything different to say about the way in which
you knit and deal in your hosiery business from what you have
heard stated by your sister-in-law?-No; I have nothing more to
say.
1970. You agree with her in everything?-Yes.
1971. And there is no difference or addition that you can state?-
No.
1972. Have you asked for money and got all you wanted?-Yes; I
never asked for money and did not get it. When I had a line from
Mr. Sinclair, I just got the same goods from him upon it as I would
have got for money.
Lerwick, January 3, 1872, MRS HELEN FLAUS, examined.
1973. Are you a dresser in Lerwick?-I dress a little and I knit a
little.
1974. Did you hear the evidence which Mrs. Arcus gave to-day?-
Yes.
1975. Do you do business in the same way that she described?-
Much the same.
1976. Do you dress shawls for some of the knitters in Lerwick?-
Yes.
1977. And you take ready money for that?-Yes.
1978. Do they sell the shawls direct to the merchants
themselves?-Yes.
1979. Do you also dress shawls for knitters from the country?-
Yes.
1980. Do you sell these shawls, or do you return them to the girls
who bring them to you?-I sometimes sell them, and sometimes
they sell them.
1981. When you sell them to the merchants, do you get ready
money or lines, or do you get goods for the girls?-I get lines from
those merchants who give lines, and those who give no lines mark
them down in their books.
1982. Who gives you the lines?-Mr. Sinclair. Mr. Laurenson
generally is the only other merchant I sell to and he marks them
down in his own book. He does not give lines.
1983. You don't sell to any of the other merchants?-Sometimes I
do.
1984. Do you sell to Mr. Johnston?-Not very much.
1985. Does he give you a line when you sell to him for a country
girl?-Yes.
1986. Do you sell to Mr. Linklater?-Yes, occasionally. He does
not give lines; he marks the articles down in his book.
[Page 39]
1987. How does he know the girl for whom the shawl has been
sold, when he only marks it in the book?-I give in the girl's name
to him, and she goes and asks for the amount that is marked in her
name, and gets it.
1988. If she knows the amount?-I tell her the amount.
1989. Then she knows the amount, and that is sufficient to identify
her?-Yes.
1990. Do these country girls sometimes ask you to get money for
them rather than goods?-No; they have never asked me to do
that.
1991. Do they sometimes get part of their payment in money?-I
cannot tell about that. They always get a line from me, and I
cannot tell how the merchants and they settle.
1992. Do you know whether lines are sometimes given for the
goods which are sold by the knitters in town?-I cannot say
anything about that.
1993. Or which are sold by yourself?-No; I don't know anything
about that myself.
1994. You never took lines for the shawls you knitted yourself?-
No; not for my own goods.
1995. Do you sometimes sell to strangers, or to people who are not
in the trade?-No; I have never done that.
1996. I suppose you meet with people who knit a good deal, and
have a number of transactions with them?-Yes.
1997. Do you know whether they prefer to sell to strangers, or to
merchants in town?-Sometimes they require money, and at other
times they require goods as well as money; and they would then
just as well have the goods as the money.
1998. But if they want the money, can they not have it from the
merchants if they ask for it?-I always got it when I asked it. For
any others, I cannot say.
1999. Do you dress goods for any of the merchants?-No.
2000. Only for the knitters?-Yes.
2001. You are never employed by the merchants at all?-No.
2002. Can you tell me; why there is not a system of paying always
in money for the hosiery?-Because it has not been a customary
thing, and they never ask it.
2003. Would it not be just as convenient for all parties to pay in
money?-I don't think it. I think we may just as well have the
goods.
2004. But if you had the money, it would be better for the knitters,
would it not; because they could buy what goods they wanted?
They might have to hand the money back across the counter, but
they would be able to make their own bargain for what they
bought?-Yes; but they would get a less price for their shawls.
2005. How do you know that?-It is so stated.
2006. Who states it?-They generally say that if they get money,
they will not get so much as in goods.
2007. Do you mean that the merchants say that?-Yes; when we
sell shawls for money, they say they will not give so much for
them in money as in goods.
2008. Who has told you that?-The merchants.
2009. Has that often been said to you?-Not often; but it has been
said.
2011. Who has said it?-Mr. Sinclair: I sold shawl to him last
night.
2012. And he told you last night that he would give you more in
goods for it than he would give in money?-Yes, than he could
give in money.
2013. What was the price of that shawl?-I got 15s. for it.
2014. Did you take that in goods?-Yes.
2015. Or in a line?-In goods.
2016. In goods that you took away at the time?-Yes.
2017. What would you have got if you had sold your shawl for
money?-I cannot exactly say. He did not particularize that.
2018. You did not go into particulars, because you wanted the
goods?-Yes.
2019. Do you sometimes sell goods that you get from the
merchants?-No; for I always require them for myself.
2020. Is it the practice for some of the knitters to sell the goods
they get?-I cannot say; I never saw it done.
2021. You never bought any goods from a knitter which she had
got in that way?-No, never.
2022. You are always paid in cash for your own dressing?-Yes.
2023. Do you think the knitters generally would be content with
lower prices if they got paid in cash?-I cannot speak for any one
but myself.
2024. You don't know the feelings of the girls deal with you from
the town?-I do not.
2025. Do you know how most of these girls are provided with their
food?-I cannot say. Occasionally the girls don't require money.
2026. Is it not the case that a number of single women live in
rooms in and knit for a living?-I cannot say, because I am not
much acquainted through the place.
2027. You do not know the private circumstances of your
customers?-I do not.
Lerwick, January 3, 1872, Mrs. ANDRINA MOUAT, examined.
2028. Where do you live?-I live in Girlsta, parish of Tingwall.