Crofters were in fact a quasi-industrial class whose tenure of smallholdings depended in the final analysis on working at tasks to supply the burgeoning markets for fish, kelp, whisky, military manpower and cattle. Their crofts were meant to be small in order to ensure they could not provide a full living for their families and pay rents only from work on the land but had to be fisherman or kelp burners as well. Crofters were to be labourers first and peasant farmers only second.
