78 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



and though possibly, and even probably, they would 

 never be able to liquidate this, yet the fact of their 

 being indebted to any particular merchant insured 

 their fishing for him year after year. Thus, per- 

 haps, the best issue for the merchant at settling 

 time seemed in every case to be a debt by each 

 man, but not large enough to make the fisherman 

 despair and so fish badly. Thus the successful 

 fisherman had to pay for his unsuccessful brother's 

 deficits. The fishermen soon found this out, and 

 were not only soured against their suppliers, but lost 

 the incentive to make any effort to discharge their 

 whole debts. The merchant now found it difficult 

 to make ends meet through bad debts, and was led 

 to buy in the fish himself, insisting on the fisher- 

 men not paying in cash, but fish. Each year the 

 commercial body fixed its own price for fish, pun- 

 ished those of their men who sold the fish for cash 

 if they could do so, and themselves resold the fish 

 in foreign markets, gaining a second profit when 

 possible. Thus large nominal debts arose, which in 

 hundreds of cases the men could never hope to 

 liquidate. The spirit of pauperism was directly 

 fostered, the men becoming absolutely dependent on 

 the charity of their merchants, and in many cases 

 from year to year never knowing how much they 

 really owed. 



This system persists to-day, as an evil heirloom, 

 dragging down both merchant and fisherman. To- 

 morrow's labour is ever mortgaged ahead for food 



