3619. You are a partner of the firm of Hay & Co., merchants in
Lerwick?-I am.
3620. You have been so for many years?-Yes.
3621. I presume you take a principal part in the management of the
affairs of that firm?-I do.
3622. In consequence of hearing that this inquiry had been
appointed to take place, you have prepared a written statement
with regard to the system pursued in the fish-curing business in
Shetland, which you now hand in?-Yes.
3623. It is a correct statement?-It is quite correct, to the best of
my knowledge.
[The following statement was put in by the witness:-]
I have had many years' experience of Shetland business generally,
and especially of the fish-curing trade. Most of the time I have
been connected with my present partners, and we have curing
stations and establishments at several parts of the islands. We also
manage four estates in the country-two as factors for the
proprietors, and two as lessees. For the first we only account for
the rents collected, but for the other two we pay fixed tack-duties.
The tenants on one of the estates for which we act as factors
are altogether free to fish where they choose, and to dispose of
their farm produce as they think proper, and their rents are
received in cash every year at Martinmas. The tenants on the
other, which I believe is next the largest in Shetland, are also free
(with the exception of the island of Whalsay, and Whalsay
Skerries); and we seldom see them unless when they come to town
to pay their rents. Some fish to one curer, and some to another, as
they find convenient; and they are quite at liberty to dispose of all
their produce, such as cattle, ponies, hosiery, and the like, where
they can obtain the best prices. We are not liable to the proprietor
for bad debts on this estate either, but the rents are generally well
paid, and very few of the tenants are in arrears.
In Whalsay there is only one curing station, and we pay the
proprietor a yearly rent for the stores, booths, kelp-shores, and
other privileges; and receive fish, oil, and kelp from the tenants,
for which we settle at the current prices of the country. We have a
factor there, with assistants, who manages for us, and supplies
fishing materials and other necessaries to the men and their
families during the year; and I usually go there myself soon after
Martinmas, to square up accounts, pay the balance due the
fishermen, and collect rents from the tenants. We also pay large
sums of money at all our other country stations. In 1870, when
north settling, I paid the men at Whalsay, after deducting their
advances, £1222; and I find from a state prepared by the factor,
that of fish, oil, and herrings received there that year, amounting to
£2529, 15s. 1d., we paid the men £1584, 12s. 9d. in cash. We
have not yet made up a similar account for 1871; but when settling
there lately, after retaining their advances, I paid them no less than
£1374. There are very few debts in the books there, and the
people are considered to be in good circumstances.
Of this estate I can speak with confidence, as the management
is more immediately in my department. There are 430 tenants on
the lands-nearly all fishermen and sailors. When we strike out of
the arrear list those tenants who have not had the opportunity of
paying their rents for last year,-two who are old and infirm, and
another who retains his balance for alleged improvements,-the
amount due for the three years it has been in our hands is only £57,
13s. 1d. None of the tenants have been warned or sold out.
Shetland fishermen have been represented as ignorant and
uneducated. This is a great mistake. They are as intelligent,
shrewd, and capable of attending to their own interest as any
similar class of men in Scotland. Many of them have sailed in all
quarters of the world. Newspapers are now circulated all over the
islands; and the Aberdeen, Leith, and Clyde Shipping Companies'
powerful steamers bring mails with great regularity twice a week
in summer, and once a week in winter; and in consequence of the
frequent communication, all sorts of farm produce have largely
increased in price. I have seen eggs selling in the islands at 11/2d.
for sixteen,-now the price is 10d. per dozen; butter 6d., now
1s. and 1s. 2d. per pound; fat cattle £3 each, now £6 to £7; ponies
40s., now £6 to £10.
In our dealings with fishermen, they are charged the same prices
for goods that we sell at for ready money to the public. We
employ a number of carpenters and other tradesmen here, all of
whom receive their wages in cash every Saturday night.
The Burra Islands are one of the properties which we hold in tack.
We have two curing stations in the islands for convenience of the
fishermen, and factors on the spot to receive the fish as they
are landed from the boats. The fishings are prosecuted on the
coasts in small boats in spring and summer, but the best of the men
are employed out of the islands, and the fishings are now very
unimportant. These men who fish out of the islands are employed
in smacks belonging to Hay & Co., and various other owners, and
prosecute the fishing on the coasts of Faroe and elsewhere, from
the end of March to the middle of August. Those who fish to us
get the same as those who are employed by others. The tenants of
these islands sell their cattle, ponies, hosiery, eggs, and all other
produce (except the few fish caught on the coast), as they like,
without let or hindrance. We have no shop in the islands, and the
men employed by us get their supplies from our stores here and at
Scalloway. Some years ago, after a time of bad crops and bad
fishings, when we had to give them large quantities of meal for
their support, and many of them were unable to pay rents, the
islands were indebted the best part of £1000. We made an attempt
at that time to get the young men to fish to us and assist their
parents, and I think in two cases we imposed fines of 20s.; but it
had a contrary effect to what we intended, and, so far as I
remember, the money was given back. I do not mention that the
men are confined to our stores. They can deal with any other curer
or shopkeeper they choose, and all our fishermen over islands can
do the same, and at settlement receive their season's earnings
wholly in cash. I believe this is the general practice; and were it
otherwise, there is the small-debt court, the sheriff court, and
several lawyers here to help them to their rights.
On the other estate referred to of which we are lessees, the
tenants who remain at home are nearly all employed in the ling
fishing. Some go south sailing, and pay their rents in cash, and we
never exercise any control over them; but as we pay the current
price to the tenants who remain at home, we insist on getting their
fish as a security for their rents, otherwise the improvident might
squander their earnings, and in some bad years be unable to pay.
We never interfere with any of the tenants' produce except fish, on
this estate more than the others. They are left to dispose of it
where they like.
We have other curing stations at different parts of the islands,
and employ a number of men and boys [Page 84] from all quarters
during the summer months, but after they settle, we have no
transactions with them till another year comes round, when they
return to our employment if they think they have been well served.
As already mentioned, we are engaged in the deep-sea cod fishing,
and, like others, send vessels to fish at Faroe, Rockall, and Iceland.
The crews are engaged on shares, and the fish are salted on board,
and afterwards landed at the curing stations in a wet state. When
ready for market, they are sold at the best price that can be
obtained, and, after deducting expenses and other charges
according to agreement, the proceeds are divided equally-
one-half to the owners, and the other to the crew. Fishings of all
kinds succeed best when the men are paid by shares. When they
are secured on monthly wages, there is no inducement for
exertion. The fishing season being short, the utmost activity is
necessary; and when the weather is favourable, the men are often
obliged to work day and night.
Shetland fishermen are not altogether dependent for their
livelihood on the produce of the fishings. In most cases they have
farms that can keep their families six to eight months, and with
good crops many of them have no occasion to buy meal the year
round. They cannot afford to use fresh beef, but, as a rule, most
families can kill a pig; and on the whole, in ordinary seasons, I
believe they have a much greater abundance of the necessaries of
life than a great many people of their class in the kingdom. They
are, without doubt, more independent and less under control than
mechanics and others (who are obliged to work under a master a
stated number of hours every day), and consequently are more
happy and contented. We have no international societies in
Shetland. Some of the dwelling-houses are not what they should
be, but a great improvement has taken place in this respect since
the timber-duty was repealed; and, for my own part, I would ten
times rather live a year in a Shetland cottage, surrounded by pure
air, than week in one of the slums of London or Glasgow.
Preparations for the ling fishing commence early in spring.
The men form themselves into crews, and appoint the most
experienced man as skipper. If they have no boat of their own,
one must be hired, or a new one built; but the lines in most cases
belong to themselves, and they always find curers ready to supply
them with what they want, on condition that they receive their fish.
No curer would be safe to make these advances, without the
men engaging to deliver their fish-a new boat alone costing
about £20 without lines, The price of the summer fish is seldom
fixed until the end of the season, when the fish are sold for the
south-country markets.
Fishermen are quite safe with this arrangement. They know the
competition between curers all over the islands is so keen, that
they are secure to get the highest possible price that the markets
can afford. Any curer that can offer a little advantage to the
fishermen over the others is certain to get more boats the following
year; and this is carried so far, that men with limited capital, in
their endeavours to obtain a large share of the trade by giving
credit and gratuities, in one way and another leave nothing to
themselves, and in the end come to grief. I have known crews to
be engaged at fixed prices before the commencement of the
fishing but as markets improved towards the end of the season, we
were obliged to throw the agreement aside and pay the same as
others, in order not to lose the men's services the following year.
When the fishing season is over and the fish prepared for market,
south-country dealers contract for it at prices free on board; and
with them again there is competition, so that curers seldom fail to
get the full value of the article.
People in the south, who have to pay perhaps 4s. to 7s. 6d. for
a fresh cod or ling, are surprised to hear that the poor Shetland
fishermen only get 6d. to 9d.; and we have had a great deal of
clever writing on this subject lately, without much common sense.
The shipping price of ling in the past season has been £23,-rather
higher than usual,-and fishermen have been paid 8s. per cwt.
wet, or about 9d. per fish. Although it has been rather a good year
for curers, the following statement will show that fortunes are not
rapidly accumulated in the trade:-
21/4 cwt. wet fish, cured ready for market,
weigh only 1 cwt.-21/4 cwt. @ 8s. £0 18 0
Add cost of salt, hire of vats, tubs, tarpaulins,
and other curing materials;
also wages to men and boys splitting,
washing, and drying; and expense of
flitting from beaches-weighing and
storing usually reckoned. . . 0 3 0
£1 1 0
21s. per cwt., or £21 per ton, leaving 40s. to the curer, out of
which he has to pay store rent, weighing, shipping, skippers' fees,
gratuities to fishermen, and to meet loss by small and damaged
fish, and of interest-the sales being made at three months in
October, and the men settled with in November; and further, when
the risk of sales is also taken into account, the sum left to
remunerate the curer for his season's work is not very large.
One great drawback on a Shetland business is fishermen's bad
debts, and our chief study is to limit the supplies when we know
the men to be improvident; but it is quite impossible to keep men
clear when the fishing proves unsuccessful. There is no difficulty,
however, when dealing with careful men.
At various stations round the islands near the fishing grounds,
where there are natural beaches, the men have small huts to live in
during the fishing season, and the crews assemble there about
the middle of May to commence operations. The merchants or
fish-curers have the necessary curing materials on the spot, and
factors, splitters, and beach boys attending to receive and cure the
fish; and, while the fishing is carried on, the men go to their
respective homes every Saturday, taking with them small and
unmerchantable fish for the use of their families-returning to the
stations, with provisions for the week, every Monday. They
generally make two or three trips during the week, according to the
state of the weather, and weigh and deliver over the catch when
they land. Their families get supplies from the factor's shop as
required; but the men have opportunities weekly of seeing their
accounts and can limit these supplies if they choose.
The Whalsay fishermen deliver their fish in summer, and live
at small holms to seaward of the main island near the fishing
ground, and a large boat is employed to remove their fish to the
beach at Simbister to be dried. The men are thus enabled to
make more voyages to the haaf than by landing each time at the
curing-beach.
As settling time approaches, our managers in the country
prepare by sending for the men, and reading over to them
individually their private accounts, comparing and making up
pass-books, where any are kept, and giving copies of the accounts
when desired; and when we come to settle, each man knows
exactly the amount of his season's expenditure.
If a ready-money system were adopted, and payments made in
cash for each landing, I believe it would scarcely be practicable
to carry it out. Large sums of money would require to be kept at
these stations,-men with some knowledge of figures and
accounts to be always present,-and half the fishermen's time
would be taken up with the settlements. The money would then
be carried home to their families, and in many cases at the end of
the season there would be little left to pay rent and provide
necessaries for the winter months, when there are no fishings,
and no work except at their own farms. Such a mode of dealing
would otherwise injure the men, as curers with small means
would be driven out of the trade, and in some measure competition
prevented.
From twenty-five to thirty years ago I had several opportunities
of seeing how the fishings were conducted Barra and South Uist.
At that time the fishermen were all living in wretched hovels along
the sea-coast, and the islands let for grazing cattle and in sheep
farms. Very few of them were able to keep a cow, and they knew
nothing of the luxuries of life, and could scarcely command a bare
existence. Their chief living in winter [Page 85] and spring was
potatoes not fit for pigs, and shell-fish, with any small fish they
could catch in the bays. There were plenty of fish on the coast, but
no middle-men with capital to encourage the men to work. In
summer they prosecuted the fishing a little distance outside of the
islands, where their buoys could be seen from the shore. Their
boats were clumsy and unmanageable-some with sails and some
without; and the lines were made by themselves out of hemp
obtained on credit, and only lasted one year. They were set on the
fishing ground at the commencement of the season, and seldom
taken up to dry. Now, however, I understand large capital is
embarked in the fishing trade in that quarter, and of late years it
has been very prosperous, and the circumstances of the natives
greatly improved.
In 1785 a Commissioner was sent by Government to inquire into
the state of the fisheries in the Hebrides, and in his report to a
committee of the House of Commons, on being asked 'whether he
thought it would be benefit to the lower classes of people if any of
the tacksmen or others were debarred by law from entering into a
contract with these people for obtaining the pre-emption of their
fish, etc., as specified in his report,' he answered, 'That, so far
from thinking it would be a benefit to the people, he should think
it would prove a material injury to them; for they have no other
possible way of being supplied with the necessaries they want
from distant markets but by the intervention of those persons who
keep stores in the manner described in the report; neither have
they in general any means of finding money to purchase boats and
other necessary apparatus for fishing; and that, unless they were
furnished by these storekeepers upon credit, very few of them
could engage in the fisheries at all; and, in the present situation of
that country, as they have no other possible way of paying the
debts they thus contract but by the fish they catch, no person
would furnish these upon credit unless they had the pre-emption of
them: that it has been already stated in the report, that this kind of
trade, though apparently very oppressive to the poor in all cases,
affords but very little profit to the merchants; and that he knew
several instances where the people who keep these stores, by
acting in a disinterested manner, have contributed very essentially
to promote the welfare of the country.'
Since that date the Shetland fisheries also have been largely
extended by the introduction of capital and the opening of stores
among the different islands, where the men can always obtain
fishing materials and supplies for their families; but to the present
day the answer still holds good: curers must have the pre-emption
of the fish, as a security for payment.
In the evidence before the Truck Commission in Edinburgh lately,
witnesses were examined who had little knowledge of Shetland
business, and many of the statements were not only contrary to
fact, but simply absurd. For instance, can any man of common
sense imagine that a merchant would come to grief in consequence
of not having enough of bad debts, and that if he could carry on
until he had £2000 of bad debts, he would do a flourishing trade,
'because they keep it going in a circle, and it never gets worse?'
That was one of the extraordinary statements made to the
Commission. Is it not clear that if a dealer with small means
emptied his shop of goods to people who could not pay for
them, then, as soon as the bills he had granted for these goods fell
due, he might shut it up?
As already mentioned, the Shetland fishing trade has been
largely developed by increased capital of late years, but in all
time past it has been conducted on the same principles, with few
modifications, as at present, and will be so, I think, in all time
coming. If the islands and their fishing banks could be removed to
near London, where the fish might be sold fresh at high prices, the
fishermen would be greatly benefited; but as this is impossible, we
must all submit to the inevitable. It is true, Government may
attempt to change the trade by Act of Parliament; but in that case
they will either have to remove the entire fishing population to
some other and better country, or keep them at home as paupers,
by annual grants for food and clothing.
We are not engaged in the hosiery trade; but I know it to be the
most troublesome business in the islands, being conducted chiefly
by barter. I think it could not be carried on very well to any extent
otherwise. We would be quite ready to embark in it and buy for
cash, if we could make a commission; but I do not believe it would
pay the expenses and servants' wages. Giving goods in exchange,
hosiers can afford to allow a much higher price for the articles
than we could for cash, and therefore very little of the trade would
come our way if we took it up.
Besides the fishing trade, we have acted a long time as agents
for ships engaged in the Greenland and Davis' Straits whale and
seal fishing. These vessels call here to complete their crews in
February and March; and when they return, the men are either
landed at Lerwick, or some other point of the islands as they pass
south. When they go out, the men are engaged at the shipping
office, and receive a month's wages in advance, in presence of the
shipping master, and the agents are reimbursed when they send the
accounts to the owners. When the ships return and the men are
landed, they disperse without a moment's delay (in most cases) to
their several homes, and come back to Lerwick to settle for their
wages and first payment of oil-money, individually, as it suits their
own convenience; and in the same way, a second time, to receive
the balance of their oil-money and sign the ship's release. This
may be better understood from the following correspondence that
took place the past year between Hay & Co. and one of the
Peterhead shipowners, in respect to a notice said to be issued by
the Board of Trade, headed 'Truck System in Lerwick:'-
'PETERHEAD, 16<th March> 1871.
'R. KIDD <to> HAY & CO.
'I enclose you letter I have received from H.M. Customs as
regards the engaging and paying of the men engaged in the
Greenland fishing ships. You will know how to act in regard to
this. You have likely received direct orders, and I only enclose it
to keep you in mind of it.'
The document to which Mr. Kidd's letter refers is given
below.*
* 'TRUCK SYSTEM IN LERWICK.
'It appears from the returns and documents received by the
Registrar-General of Seamen, that the indulgence granted by the
Board of Trade under their special regulations, M. 2884/1864, to
the owners and masters of sealing and whaling vessels, in respect
to seamen engaged at Orkney and Shetland, has in a great measure
been abused, and the whole object of the regulations defeated
by the agents employed by and representing the owners at
Lerwick. The Board of Trade are informed that many of the
Shetland seamen who should have been discharged before the
Superintendent there, within a reasonable time after their being
landed on the termination of a first or second voyage, remain
undischarged and unpaid even into the currency of the succeeding
year, and that some of the releases for 1870 still remain
incomplete.
'It should be borne in mind that the exceptional regulations
referred to were issued by the Board of Trade, with a view to the
convenience of the owners and masters of this class of vessels, and
the protection of the Shetland seamen; but as the latter intention
seems to have been purposely frustrated, the Board of Trade direct
you to inform the owners and masters of those vessels whose
crews are engaged before you during the ensuing season, that
unless they cause their agents to comply with the spirit as well as
the letter of these regulations, and discharge the men within one
month of their being landed, the Board will be necessitated either
to render the regulations more stringent, or withdraw them
altogether. If the latter alternative were adopted, the discharge of
the Orkney and Shetland whaling crews would have to take place
under the more rigid terms prescribed by the Merchant Shipping
Act, 1854, which of all other vessels at ports in the United
Kingdom.'
'CUSTOM HOUSE, PETERHEAD,
'10<th March> 1871
'SIR,-The foregoing is a copy of directions just received from
the Board of Trade, dated 7th March, regarding the faulty way in
which seamen are discharged from Peterhead whaling vessels at
Lerwick; and I now beg to call your attention thereto, requesting
that you would instruct your agent at Lerwick to attend to the
previous instructions issued, which were circulated among the
masters and agents when they were issued.
'W.R. BALFOUR.
'Mr. R. KIDD, Merchant.'
[Page 86]
'LERWICK, 27<th March> 1871.
'HAY & CO. <to> R. KIDD.
'We are duly favoured with your's of 16th instant, enclosing a
communication from the Board of Trade in reference to payment
of wages to Shetlandmen on board of ships in the Greenland trade,
and headed by the words, 'Truck in Lerwick,'-a cry raised by a
stranger who has taken up his residence in Shetland, and is now
endeavouring, by every means in his power, to make himself
prominent both here and elsewhere.
'We utterly deny that we have ever 'purposely frustrated' the
Board regulations in respect to the payment of these men; on the
contrary, we have kept a clerk, whose time has been chiefly
occupied in settling the wages in presence of the collector as they
came to town one by one, according to their own convenience; and
you know how far the commission we get from the ships can go
towards his salary. Nobody can compel the men to come to town
all at one time for their wages; and if the releases of 1870 are not
yet completed, it is not our fault.
'Without attaching any blame to you, we consider the document
referred to-if it is meant to apply to us-a gratuitous insult. The
Greenland agency is no great object, and after this season we shall
not put ourselves in a position to have it repeated.'
'PETERHEAD, 23<d March> 1871.
'R. KIDD <to> HAY & CO.
'I sent the document from the Board of Trade, in case you should
not have received a copy. I am of opinion that the men will
suffer more by this new order than the merchants, from the
experience I have had here. Were I not to give some credit to
some of our own men during the winter, their families would
starve. I do not wonder you feel sore upon the subject of the
report.'
'LERWICK, 27<th March> 1871.
'HAY & CO. <to> R. KIDD.
'We have yours of 23d instant. With respect to advances, our
people are differently circumstanced from yours. The married
men have all farms in the country, and the young men live with
their friends there, and we never see them from the time they settle
the one year until they come to town to engage the next; so during
the winter they neither ask, nor would we give them any supplies if
they did, as in all probability they would offer their services first to
agents who held no claim against them. Of the twenty men
engaged for the 'Mazinthien,' not one was due us a shilling, and
their month's wages was paid to them in cash at the shipping
office at the time they signed articles; and any advances their
families may get during their absence is given on their monthly
notes, which are the only authority we have for making the
deduction from their wages when they return.
'A great deal of absurdity has been written lately on this subject by
well-meaning people, but who were entirely ignorant of the whole
matter, and ready to believe whatever was told them, without
taking the trouble to ascertain whether it was true or false.'
'LERWICK, 22<d. May> 1871
'HAY & CO. <to> R. KIDD.
'Referring to your letter of 16th March, we now send you
enclosed abstract account of payments to Shetlandmen on board
vessels for which we have acted as agents during the past three
seasons, 1869, 1870, and 1871, to show how far we have benefited
by what the Board of Trade are pleased to call the 'Truck System
in Lerwick.'
'We are almost inclined to suppose the document now referred
to, received in your letter of the above date, was titled at
Peterhead, as we can scarcely believe it would be issued from a
public office in London before previous inquiry had been made on
the subject.
'As to signing the releases at the Custom House, neither the
owners nor agents of the ship can compel the men to come to
Lerwick for their wages, otherwise than they find it convenient for
themselves. It would save us much trouble if they would wait in
town a few hours after the ship's arrival, and receive their wages
all at once at the Custom House; or, when they happen to be
landed at a distance from Lerwick, if they could arrange to meet
together here for the purpose at the same time.
'While matters remain as at present, whether these releases are
signed or not, we can only do as we have always done in time past:
pay the men promptly when they call. The supplies mentioned in
the account now enclosed consist mostly of meal given to the
men's families to account of their half-pay notes, and on which the
profits cannot pay cellar rents, and servants' wages receiving and
delivering it; so that, beyond the 21/2 per cent. commission on the
wages, we have no inducement to continue in the trade.'