In the winter of 1876 a journalist,
John Sands, was stranded on the island of St Kilda.
He had also visited the archipelago in
the previous year and wrote an account of his experiences, Out of
this World; or Life in St Kilda, which was published by
MacLachlan & Stewart in 1888.
On page 59 of this book Sands provides
figures for various items produced by the St Kildans in 1875 and I
have used these to calculate the values that follow:
Cloth: 227 yards (Of 47 inches and
thumb) at 2s 3d = £ 25 10s 9d
Blankets: 403 at 1s 10d = £ 36
18s 10d
Fulmar oil: 906 pints (each pint equal
to 5 pints Imperial) at 1s = 906s = £ 45 6s 0d
Tallow: 17stones 6 pounds (each stone
containing 24 lbs.) at 6s 6d = £ 5 12s 1½d
Black feathers: 87 stones 15 pounds
(24lb to the stone) at 6s = £ 26 5s 9d
Grey feathers: 69 stones 19 pounds (24
lb to the stone) at 5s = £ 17 8s 11½d
Cheese: 38 stones 6 pounds (24 lb to
the stone) at 6s = £ 11 9s 6d
Fish: 1080 “marketable” at 7d each
= 7560d = 630s = £ 31 10s 0d
Total £200 1s
11d
These goods were produced by the
seventy-five souls living in St Kilda in 1875, giving a per capita
income of £2 13s 6d. which we may equate to about £1,650 today.
There were 18 households recorded in
the 1871 census, suggesting an average household income of £11 2s
2d, or about £6,870 in today's money.
Whilst not a vast sum of money, it is
nevertheless indicative of the degree to which the people of St Kilda
were participating in the wider economy at this time, and also of the
prodigious quantities of birds that they were processing. The fact
that they sold over 1000 fish in a single year is, however, perhaps
the biggest surprise?
An extract from Sands account account
of being stranded may be read online:
http://www.widegrin.com/vicmisc/st_kilda.htm
Superb information! Nails the lie that st kilda had to be evacuated.
ReplyDeleteGreat information! Thank you!
ReplyDelete