It has thus come to pass that there is almost nowhere in
Shetland, out of Lerwick, a shop of any size not belonging to a
fish-curer. I attempted to ascertain the views of various small
shopkeepers, struggling to make a trade, with regard to their
larger neighbours. Sometimes these men did not understand the
disadvantage under which they are placed; or they may have had
views of eventually rising by the same means which have led
their competitors on to fortune; or, as there was sometimes
reason to suspect, they may have been put into business by a
larger merchant to sell his goods on commission, or have been
otherwise indebted to him or dependent upon him. Whatever may
be the cause, shopkeepers of this class are not so sensitive, or
not so communicative, on this point as might be expected. One
or two, however, were found independent enough, or intelligent
enough, to tell how their business is hampered and confined
by the local custom, which thirls the men to the shops of the
fish-merchants. Mr. Georgeson, a respectable shopkeeper in the
parish of Walls not engaged in fish-curing, says that men who sell
their fish green are necessarily less frequent customers of his than
those who cure their own fish. He thinks that the skipper generally
influences his men to take their supplies from the shop of the
merchant, or at least that the men are apt to be guided to do so by
his example; while his neighbour, Mr. Twatt, thinks 'there is a
little bribe which the skippers get for seeing that the men go to the
shop.' I give this, however, merely as an opinion by a shrewd but
not disinterested local observer. The force of custom, the want of
ready money, and the other influences already mentioned, are
quite sufficient to account for the great amount of this kind of
Truck which exists in Shetland, without having recourse to the
supposition that skippers or others are bribed to induce men to