The New Year, 1872 and the Truck Commission

The New Year of 1872 began in a special way in Shetland. On the first of January Sheriff William Guthrie began hearings in the Queens Hotel, the Shetland part of a Royal Commission into the truck system. The John o Groats Journal reported that a number of people came forward, some to give evidence, some out of curiosity.

The Queen's Hotel and Lodberry on Lerwick's waterfront (Ref: T00083)

Truck was a system of debt bondage that troubled Victorian Britain. Typically it lives in places with few or single industries, and/or powerful landlords. It is especially associated with coal mining. There’s a depiction of it in Emile Zola’s novel, Germinal, although Shetlanders might more associate it with Sixteen Tons, a song by country singer Merle Travis (1917-1983).

Truck evolved in Shetland after the disastrous and starving decade of the 1690s. The fish were sold, people were paid by landlords or merchants, and had to buy their goods from their businesses. No shopping around. It was a kind of cashless economy in the sense that people rarely saw cash. In fact, they could find it difficult to establish how much money they had. When they did, they often found debt. As Merle Travis put it in his song -- I owe my soul to the company store. Unsurprisingly, the truck system was open to considerable abuse.

Guthrie got around Shetland, from Boddam in Dunrossness to Baltasound in Unst, producing 456 pages of closely printed double column text, as Shetlanders expressed their views on the system that dominated their lives. He asked 17,000 questions. The first day, 150 years ago, can tell us a great deal.
The first witness was Catherine Winwick, who lived by herself and knitted for a Mr Linklater. She may be the Catherine Winwick (1834-1876) from Uyeasound in Unst, who lived in Reform Lane in Lerwick, but her statement doesn’t give that kind of personal information. Her dialogue is cautious, as if she was afraid to offend. She probably was. Consider this, when Guthrie asks her about being paid in money –

Do you mean that you knew if you had asked for it you would not have got it?--I don't think I would have got it all in money; I never asked him for it all, but I always got what I asked for. If I asked him for a few shillings of money, he always gave it to me.

Just some of the 'Truck' questions answerd by Catherine Winwick

While she got some cash, she was largely paid in goods, among them nine yards of white cotton at 8½ per yard. Catherine had to pay rent, probably where much of her very limited cash income went -- It had to be enough, for I could not get anything else. When Guthrie asked her if she would have liked to have had more money to spend on food, she answered unequivocally, Yes. But she didn’t get paid in perishables.

There were nine witnesses that day, seven of them women, really the first time we get a body of Shetland women whose lives are documented to any extent. The final witness, a man, Simon Laurenson of Cunningsburgh, spoke for only a short time, but got his point over -- We want to know, as British subjects, whether, if we pay our rent annually, we are entitled to our freedom.

Did anyone get their freedom as a result of the thousands of words the commission collected? Although there was a report, the sad answer is no. The Shetland system was a difficult one to crack, especially as the trucked Shetlanders were self-employed, not employees. The Sheriff did put his finger on it his report though -- It is plain that the prevalence of truck is due in no small degree to the habit of dependence, or submission, which the faulty relations between landlords and tenants have fostered. And then -- I may at least be permitted to hope that, in any reform of the land tenancy laws of Scotland, the case of Shetland will not be forgotten.

Shetland wasn’t forgotten when reform of the land tenancy laws came from another commission, the Napier Commission in 1883. Witnesses were not so awed by authority and magnates then, and some were quite combative. A lot had changed in just over ten years. The herring industry operated quite differently to the traditional open boat fishery most men were employed at in 1872.

That was the men, what about all those women whose lives were document? In the knitwear industry the practice of exchanging goods for hosiery carried on. There was a second mini-truck enquiry in Delting in 1887, but the system, amazingly, carried on up to World War Two. The Shetland Hand Knitters Association and A.I. Tulloch are held to have played a major part in finally toppling it.

1887 advert for hosiery, from Shetland Textiles, Edited by Sarah Laurenson, 2013

Truck has gone from Shetland, and the 150th anniversary of the enquiry is a time to reflect on the powerful body of testimony left for researchers thanks to Sheriff Guthrie’s assiduity, and thecourageous but often diffident witnesses. It hasn’t gone from the world altogether, and is alive and well in parts of Africa, Asia, and South America. Every now and again, it crops up in a TV interview with a desperate migrant, trying to be entitled to freedom, like Simon Laurenson.

Related Posts

Shining a light on Ann Harriet Pottinger this International Women's Day

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2024 we shine a light on Ann Harriet Pottinger, née Hunter, one of many unsung, hard-working ...

Read more

New book of Shetland Fine Lace Knitting launched

A new publication, ‘Shetland Fine Lace Knitting – Recreating patterns from the past’ by Shetland Museum’s textiles curator, ...

Read more

Profound new exhibition, Polar North, captures the fragility of the Arctic landscape

A profound new exhibition which captures the fragile and shifting beauty of the Arctic landscape opens this Sunday 10 March at Da ...

Read more

Shetland Museum and Archives launches series of ‘Thursday Lates’ heritage talks

Evenings celebrating Shetland’s rich culture and heritage will begin next month as Shetland Museum and Archives launches its ...

Read more

Be My Valentine

It’s that time of year, Valentine’s Day, the 14th of February. In the Shetland Archives Catalogue references to Valentines are ...

Read more

Old style islands courtships

We’re warming ourselves up to the idea of Valentine’s Day. Some might say Shetlanders are not renowned for being romantics and ...

Read more

Shetland Museum celebrates Lerwick Up Helly Aa 2024

The Shetland Museum & Archives was full of activity last week as we celebrated Lerwick Up Helly Aa with a series of fiery events and ...

Read more

Shetland Amenity Trust’s heritage sites open for this year’s Up Helly Aa

The fiery season will soon be back and Shetland Amenity Trust is putting together a series of events as well as offering extended ...

Read more

Shetland's War Memorial - constructed by William Horne

Shetland’s War Memorial on Hillhead is now one hundred years old, and was rededicated with a ceremony on 6 January. The memorial ...

Read more

Christmas in Shetland - 1923

1923, like many of the years between the wars, was not a good one. The Shetland Times year end report spoke of a poor herring fishing, ...

Read more

Research project commissioned to encourage locals to grow more aets!

Shetland Amenity Trust has commissioned a research project with two local straw makers to understand more about the growing of ...

Read more

‘Logical Confusion’, a retrospective exhibition of Mike McDonnell opens at the Shetland Museum

An ambitious new exhibition dedicated to the artistry of well-known local artist Mike McDonnell opened this weekend at the Shetland ...

Read more

New poetry book - ‘Love in Human Herts’

‘Love in Human Herts’, a new publication celebrating Vagaland’s finest poetry has been launched today by the Shetland Amenity ...

Read more

The funny story behind some of Lerwick's street names

In the 1880s Lerwick was changing rapidly. As the great herring fishery of that era developed, there were new streets, and potential ...

Read more

Film celebrating the achievements of Johnnie Notions launched by Shetland Museum and Archives

A new film which brings to life the incredible story of 18th century inoculation pioneer and Shetland crofter Johnnie Notions has been ...

Read more