Far off the coast of Scotland sits a small island called St Kilda. Not long ago the people who lived there left and moved to the mainland. Before that, they had lived on an island with no roads, no bank loans, no telephones, nothing with a motor in it, no post office, fire station or police station. Oh, and they didn't have money either.

Believe it or not, about one hundred and eighty people lived and worked on the island without using any coins or bank notes. While the rest of Britain went through all the changes of the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, life on St Kilda stayed pretty much the same and the idea of money was never needed.

The islanders still had to pay for the land, which they rented from a landlord on the Isle Of Skye. They paid in kind, which means they gave him goods instead of money. These goods included things they had grown (barley and oats) and things they had caught or farmed (fish, cows, sheep and a lot of seabirds). They also got some imported goods in exchange, although the visit only happened once a year. When the landlord or his representative came, he brought a minister with him. This meant that all the baptisms and marriages could take place

This was not a lost world. People in Scotland, and the rest of Britain, knew about them. It was not the only society that did not use money, but it was unusual to have such a society, of such a size, in one of the more developed parts of the world. What is perhaps most interesting is that this community ended quite recently. The islanders left in nineteen thirty.

By the end of the nineteenth century the outside world had started to come to the island more often. For example, a steam yacht visited it in eighteen thirty-eight (possibly the first time anyone on St Kilda had seen an engine) and there were regular summer cruises there from eighteen seventy-seven. This brought tourists and other trade. A school and a church had appeared and the islanders started to make things to sell to the visitors. Not everyone had the same opinion of these visitors, especially when they tried to use a camera. Some of the islanders ran away in fear.

After a serious food shortage and an outbreak of influenza (just after World War One, when the navy had visited), the islanders, only thirty-six of them now, asked to be evacuated. Some had already emigrated to Australia (where there is still a suburb called St Kilda in Melbourne) although a lot of them had died on the journey. Many of the islanders found work in forestry. They were particularly good at climbing trees, which is useful in this type of work. That is quite interesting because there is one other thing they didn't have on St Kilda: trees.

Glossary

on the mainland na lądzie stałym

a landlord właściciel

goods towary

barley jęczmień

oats owies

a cruise rejs

a suburb dzielnica

forestry leśnictwo

What else do farmers grow? See how many you can find in the wordsearch. One of them is not for food. Which one?

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KEY

corn

wheat

rye

rapeseed

sugar beet

turnips

onions

potatoes

cabbages

clover

Clover is grown to put nitrogen in the soil. If you didn't know what rapeseed is, it's used for cooking oil (and the rest of the plant is used for animal food).

By the way:

What is the difference between an auction and a Dutch auction?

KEY

With a Dutch auction, the seller starts with the highest price and brings it down until someone buys. It's faster than other auctions such as ebay or allegro.

Did you know?

The people on St Kilda ate puffins as a snack but they couldn't buy crisps, could they?

They sent a 'Help' message by floating it in a sheep's bladder (pęcherz )and hoping someone would find it. They had to send a lot before someone answered.

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