58 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



and other necessaries for fishing" in order that the fisher- 

 men might have a local supply of apparatus at a nominal 

 cost. 1 As matters then stood, the merchants and others 

 who brought goods over from England charged exorbitant 

 rates for carrying freight between England and the 

 colonies, sometimes the cost of the goods being doubled 

 in value by the excessive charges of transportation. To 

 the efforts of Mr. Peter is due the credit of establishing 

 the commerce and fisheries of Salem on a substantial basis. 

 For years this port of the colonies was without a rival in 

 domestic and foreign commerce and in the fisheries. 



The course of trade was now well fixed in its natural 

 routes. The Dutch on the Hudson had been trading with 

 the New Englanders for some time. The Dove, a pinnace 

 of fifty tons, came from Maryland in 1634 with a cargo 

 of corn to be exchanged for the fish and other commodities 

 of the northern colonies. 2 The southern people were in 

 need of the northern staples and gladly exchanged their 

 tobacco and corn for New England fish. Settlers on the 

 coast of Maine carried on a similar traffic with Massa- 

 chusetts ports. A visitor to the coast of Maine about this 

 time leaves a vivid account of the fisheries and coast- 

 wise trade. He describes the method of pursuing the fish- 

 ing business thus : 



'The fishermen take yearly on the coast many hundred 

 quintals of cod, hake, haddock, pollock, etc., and dry them 

 on their stages, making three voyages a year. They make 

 merchantable and refuse fish, which they sell to Massa- 

 chusetts merchants; the first for 32 ryals ($4) per 

 quintal; 3 the refuse for 9 and 10 shillings ($2 and $2.25). 

 The merchant sends the first to Lisbon, Bilboa, Marseilles, 

 Bordeau, Toulon, and other cities of France; to Canaries, 



i Sabine, p. 125. 



2Weeden, I, p. 128. 



3 A quintal equals 112 pounds. 



