19th Century Scottish Farm Ledger, 1845-1848
1848. Full Leather. Good binding. Item #9763
5-1/4" x 3-3/8." 108 pp. Full brown leather over flexible boards. Vertical red rules for accounting printed on each page. 1-3/8" strip of leather neatly removed from the fore-edge of the front cover; occasional ink spotting and minor stains throughout; toned leaves with a few creases; faded pencil calculations to pastedowns.
Interesting mid-19th century farm ledger, apparently from eastern Scotland, possibly Inverurie or Aberdeen, recorded during the great famines in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. The currency symbols at the top of the expense and income columns appear to be in pounds, shilling, and pence, and various place and personal names which appear repeatedly in the text – i.e., Commercial Co. of Port Elfinston [sic], Aberdeen, Wm. Duncan, et al – lead to our deducing this locale. Although the ledger is anonymous, the names of Robert Frasier Brach (?) and James Dugard appear, possibly as business clients, as do the names of the recorder's many temporary workers. These workers, usually hired around the planting and harvesting season, are both male and female, and include Mary Ellice, Jas Marr, George Dugard, Wm. Duncan, Alex Burr, and many others.
Extensively detailed and highly readable, this ledger document the many expenses and income sources of a working farm, showing precise amounts for equipment (scythes and carts feature prominently), horses, bolls of meal, barrels of lime, whisky, and various other sundries. The farm's produce relied heavily on grains, especially corn and barley, just as the Corn Laws were being heatedly debated in Parliament, and its overall diversity demonstrates the crop diversity that allowed eastern Scotland and the Lowlands to evade the ravages of the potato blight; plots and crops for planting the "slack land" are also demarcated. Charts showing daily employee wages are also of special note.
Overall, a unique, useful and well-maintained agricultural document concurrent with, and standing in stark contrast to, the devastation occurring in the western portion of the country and Ireland at that time.
Price: $450.00