138 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



fishery, and a bounty of twenty cents per barrel was 

 granted on pickled fish exported, if it had been cured with 

 foreign salt. These regulations were to continue one year 

 after peace with Great Britain. By a subsequent act they 

 were continued in force without limitation. 1 After Sep- 

 tember 30, 1817, the above allowances were granted only 

 when the officers and three-fourths of the crews of the ves- 

 sels were proved to be American citizens. 2 



The duty on salt, which formed the basis for the above- 

 mentioned bounties, was in the several tariffs down to 1818, 

 as follows: Act of August 10, 1790, twelve cents per 

 bushel; Act of July 8, 1797, twenty cents per bushel; Act 

 of July 1, 1812, forty cents per bushel ; Acts of July 29, 

 1813 and April 27, 1816, twenty cents per bushel. 3 The 

 quantity of salt imported between the years 1791 and 1818 

 inclusive was 73,928,614 bushels, and the amount of duty 

 accruing on this was $12,928,528.* 



A glance at the statistics of tonnage engaged in the cod- 

 fishery during this period shows that there was a gradual 

 increase from the 19,185 tons of 1789 to 50,163 tons in 

 1793. The next year the tonnage fell to 28,671, only to 

 rise again until it reached 42,746 tons in 1798. For the 

 last two years of that century the tonnage kept between 

 29,000 and 30,000; but from 1800 to 1807 there was a 

 gradual increase annually until the high-water mark for 

 this period was recorded as 69,306 tons, in 1807. The pas- 

 sage of the Embargo Act in 1807 proved disastrous for the 

 fishing industry, as it did in other maritime pursuits. 

 Within two years the tonnage fell off to 34,486 tons, a loss 

 of over fifty per cent for those years. The fisheries had 

 just begun to recover from the effects of the Embargo Act 



1 Seybert, U. S. Statistical Annals, p. 338. 



2 Ibid, p. 389. 



a Tariff Acts of the U. S. 



*Niles' Reg. (1819), p. 53. Sabine, p. 176. 



