6 £0 2 6 £0 2 6 17 0 3 3 0 3 3 45 0 11 0 0 11 0'
And so on.
M. Sanderson, 7297; R. Sinclair, 2592; J. Sinclair, 3251; R.
Linklater, 2695.]
For several pages at the beginning of the book the numbers are not consecutive; and it was explained that the unpaid notes in a previous book had been copied into this book, book, in order to avoid having to refer to two books in the course of business.
The notation employed consists of the letters of the alphabet, with a number up to 100. When the single letters were exhausted, that is, when 2600 lines were issued, the lines were marked AA 1, AA 2, and so on, up to 100; and then AB 1, AB 2, up to 100, and so on till the latest entry, which was on January 4, 1872, DA 90.
Each of the tickets (which are in this form-'CY 92-Credit bearer value in goods for 18s. R. Sinclair & Co., J.J.B. 22/12/72') is marked with the same letters and number the corresponding entry in this book. When it is returned, goods are given for its amount, or for part of it,-the payment in the latter case being sometimes marked on the line which is retained by the knitter. When the whole amount is paid the line is marked in the line-book 'Paid,' and the date of settlement is generally added, thus:
'B.H. 93 Paid 18/11/71 W.B. £0 1 6 £0 1 6 98 Paid 23/11/71 0 15 0 0 15 0'
The majority of the lines now standing in the early pages of this book are still unpaid.
Thus, on page 1, out of 29 lines from BAH 6 to BL 34 (199 lines issued within the same period having presumably been paid before this new register was begun), only 3 are remarked as paid. So, on the second page, out of 30 lines, from BL 36 to BO 24, only 4 are marked paid; and on page 3, from BO 40 to BR 57, only 3 are marked as paid.
Taking as a specimen the 74 lines issued on the first four days of December 1871, the average amount of the sums for which they are granted is 5s. 6d. the actual amounts varying from 31s. 6d. to 1s. Out of these 74, 21 lines, amounting in all to £8, 6s. 2d (and averaging 7s. 1020/21d), were paid at 4th January. It does not appear whether the extinction of the lines is always effected by taking goods to the full amount of the line, or whether part of a line is not, on the occasion of a purchase of goods, transferred to a new line, which might very readily be done.