CHAPTER IV 



TEARS OF GROWTH AND EXPANSION 



Down to the year 1635 the fishing industry of New 

 England was carried on in a more or less desultory man- 

 ner. The amount of home capital invested in the busi- 

 ness was small, even in the aggregate. The returns from 

 year to year were uncertain. The fishing stations were 

 scattered along many miles of the coast. There was no 

 central supply station where boats might be fitted out, nor 

 was there a distinctive shipping port to which products of 

 the sea' could be brought before being shipped to other 

 countries. However, men were beginning to see the need 

 of .greater capital invested in the industry, of central store- 

 houses, and of more united action among the fishermen. 

 Some began to foresee great possibilities both in develop- 

 ment of the fishing industry, and in the consequent evolu- 

 tion of the scattered fishing stations into respectable, 

 united settlements. 



The Rev. Hugh Peter, a celebrated minister of Salem, 

 was one of the first to advocate an increase of commerce 

 and the fisheries through business enterprise. In 1635, 

 he went about from place to place arousing men in public 

 and in private to a more generous spirit for the general 

 welfare. He was successful in raising a good sum of 

 money "to set on foot the fishing business.' He sent word 

 to England asking that an equal amount be raised there 

 for the purpose. He himself became actively interested 

 in the business that his zeal had helped to create. It 

 was his purpose "to set up a magazine of all provisions 



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