'Plenty of them,' says Mr. Peter Garriock, speaking of Faroe
fishers, 'are able to live on their own resources, but still they come
for their supplies;'and he gives an example, which is not a solitary
one. Mr. John Harrison says:

... 'The system has obtained so long, of fishermen requiring
advances, or rather taking advances, that they cannot see, or do not
understand, why they should take their own money in order to buy
the necessary supplies before they proceed to the fishing. I have
no doubt that they have also this idea, that the fish-curer takes a
sufficient profit upon the goods supplied, and they consider they
have a right to keep their money and not to pay for them until the
end of the season.'

[P. Garriock, 15,223; W.B.M. Harrison, 15,724; John Harrison,
16,511]

It is of course a result of this system, that a large shop business,
in many districts, can be carried on only by one who has a
fish-curing establishment. In Lerwick and in Walls, in one case
in Dunrossness (Gavin Henderson), and perhaps in Unst, some
shops have succeeded without the aid of fishing, but always under
difficulties. Fish-curers have also attempted to confirm or extend
this monopoly by artificial means, such as the prohibition of rival
shops,-as in Burra, Whalsay, Unst, Northmaven, Fetlar , and Yell.

[T. Williamson, 9463; G. Georgeson, 12,111; A. Sandison,
10,133.]