[c1894] PANL P4/14, p. 196 Tal qual, sometimes called all qualls, fish bought without culling is clearly the Latin talis qualis, 'such as it is.' 1896 J A Folklore ix, 31 In the prices current in the newspapers one may see fish distinguished as tol squolls or tal squals and quoted at certain figures. [1911] 1930 COAKER 30 Fish would not have advanced beyond $5.30 talqual this season if the FPU did not exist. [1913] 1954 INNIS 462 It may truthfully be said that there is no cull of fish to be standardized, all fish being bought tal qual. 1928 FPU (Twillingate) Minutes 5 Oct [He] said that tal qual fish was $8.20 and Spanish $9 and cullage $5 in Port Union today. 1933 Nfld Royal Commission Report 105 During the War years, quantity rather than quality became the ruling consideration; the 'cull' was therefore dispensed with and fish were bought on what is known as the 'tal qual' system, viz., an average price was fixed for the whole of a fisherman's catch without any exact regard to the varying qualities of the fish comprising the catch. 1937 DEVINE 51 ~ As to qualities of fish, it means taking the good and middling at the same price. P 127-73 He bought thirty quintals of tal qual. P 209-73 ~ Good and bad fish together.
as well as this:
tal qual av phr O Sup2 ~ Nfld (1732-). [1732 in Calendar State Papers, Amer. & W. Indies (1939) 282 And by carrying a mixt cargoe which is all sold at markett for marchantable fish, when it's only (what in the stile of the fishermen is called Tal Qual) to the shoarmen. O Sup2.] P 245-87 'The Chairman of the Canadian Saltfish Corporation said that he didn't like it but that they had to buy tal qual [this year] because of the competition [for cod] from the large fish plants.' 1987 MCDONALD 8 An additional factor that prejudiced good quality was the growing practice of 'tal qual' purchasing, whereby merchants bought all qualities of fish at a flat rate.