Second Shetland Truck System ReportGuthrie, William
History
Second Shetland Truck System Report
Guthrie, William
Labor law -- Truck system -- History -- England; Shetland (Scotland) -- History
1187. Messrs. Hay have not objected to that?-No. They might
not have been requiring me when I was going, and therefore I
could go where I liked.
1188. When you go there, how do you arrange for your family to
be supplied during your absence?-The merchant supplies them
during my absence.
1189. What merchant?-Whatever owner I am out for.
1190. When your wife wants supplies, does she go to his shop for
them?-Yes.
1191. If she wants money, does she ask it from him too?-She
may, but sometimes she has been refused it. They are not willing
to give money. If they think we are doing well at the fishing, they
will advance her a little money; but if they think we are not
succeeding well, they will not give it, because they would think
then that we might come to be in their debt.
1192. Is there any communication with the vessels when they are
at the fishing?-Yes. Some of the vessels may go home and come
back again, or an accident may occur on board of one of them, and
she may go home and give an account of how the fishing is going
on. They may also send letters from Faroe, by Denmark, to
Shetland; so that there are several ways of communicating from
there to here.
1193. Who are some of the parties with whom you have shipped
for the Faroe fishing?-I have been out for Mr. Garriock in
Reawick, Mr. Garriock in Lerwick, Mr. Leask, and Messrs. Hay.
1194. But, whoever you go out for, your wife generally goes to
their shop for her supplies?-She is obliged to go there, if we have
no other means to live on.
1195. Can you tell me one occasion on which she went and was
refused money, or on which you have asked them to give her
money and it has been refused?-I am not quite sure that there has
been any occasion of that kind, because we know that if we are not
fishing well, we need not ask for money.
1196. Have you been told that by any of the shopkeepers?-I have
seen it, and experienced it.
1197. When, and how?-Even during the last season with the
Faroe fishing, there were some of the merchants who would not
make an advance to the people when they required it.
1198. Did they require to get an advance of money?-They might
try to live on through the season without money, and they might
have done it if they could only have got some meal and some
bread to live upon.
1199. Do you mean that the people at the fishing had to do so?-
No; the people whom they left at home got so little that they could
hardly subsist upon it, and they had to try some other means in
order to enable them to live.
1200. What other means had they?-They might have a cow or
two, and make butter, and sell the milk, and buy a little meal with
that.
1201. Do any of the members of your family knit?-I have two
daughters who knit
1202. Do they get money for that knitting?-Not one cent.
1203. Have you sold the hosiery work for them?-I never did.
They always manage these matters for themselves.
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