Second Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Truck System (Shetland), 1872 - Tapa dura

Second Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Truck System (Shetland). Report presented to both Houses of Parliament .

Hardback. Condición: Fine. Thuleprint, Sandwick, Shetland, 1978 being a facsimile reprint, and with a new introduction by Hance Smith, of the original printed in Edinburgh by Murray and Gibb for HMSO, 1872. Folio, pp viii, 56; this is number 79 of a limited edition of 100 hand bound copies; quarter maroon buckram, spine gilt, marbled boards, the binding designed by Jenny Gunn; fine copy. The truck system, one of paying wages in kind rather than with money, was a national rather than a purely local approach and had been addressed by the Truck Act of 1831 which basically prohibited the payment of wages in kind. However, by 1872 there were concerns that the system still continued in different areas and a Commission was established which held sittings around the UK to take evidence. Shetland wasn't unique in this regards but its main industries were fishing and hosiery and knitwear production, together with kelp gathering, crofting and other minor economic activities, and there were therefore understandable reasons relating to the need for credit and, in the case of fish merchants, access to steady supplies. These circumstances together with the general and long established practice of barter in a subsistence economy meant that aspects of the truck system continued. According to the introduction by Smith this very readable report, drawing on evidence gathered in the same year as the publication of Marx's "Capital" and at a time when Shetland society was on the cusp of economic change, remains very relevant in the economic conditions prevailing today well beyond Shetland itself. Nº de ref. del artículo: 000283

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