PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES 585 



"future" order unless he was assured of a chance to cancel it should 

 he feel that too high a sum was fixed in the opening prices. 



Some canneries contract to sell their entire output to one buyer, and 

 the price fixed is usually the opening prices for the year in question. 

 In such cases the buyer and seller are both compelled to abide by the 

 price, no matter how unjust one or the other may consider it. 



The announcement of opening prices does not occur ordinarily 

 until late in August or early in September, when the greater part 

 of the packing is over with and a good line on the total pack has 

 been obtained. 



AMERICAN OPENING PRICES 



Below are shown the yearly opening prices on the various grades 

 and sizes from 1890 to 1928. The most interesting part of this is 

 the increase shown in the value of high-grade salmon. Columbia 

 River chinook was quoted at $1.05 for 1-pound tails in 1897, and it 

 gradually advances until in 1928 it is quoted at $4.15. Alaska red 

 1-pound tails in 1897 sold for 90 cents, the lowest during the period 

 in question, advancing, with occasional recessions, until in 1925 it 

 reached high-water mark of $3.50. In 1897 Puget Sound 1-pound 

 tall sockeye sold for 80 cents, 10 cents below Alaska red. In 1898 it 

 sold for 20 cents less than reds. In 1902 it sold for $1 as compared 

 with 95 cents for Alaska red, and from that time on brought a higher 

 price, being quoted at $4.25 in 1922 as compared with $2.25 for 

 Alaska red. No sockeye 1-pound tails were packed since 1922. 



Medium red or coho does not figure in the opening prices until 1908, 

 when Puget Sound coho sold for 5 cents a dozen more than Alaska 

 coho. Very shortly thereafter, however, both were classed together 

 and sold for the same price. This grade has not had the wide fluc- 

 tuations of the others, due mainly to the generally small pack made 

 annually. 



Pink salmon has been the football of the salmon market ever since 

 the pack became of sufficient size to become a feature in it. The 

 size of the pack has been steadily increasing, as the fish became 

 better known, and while the price obtained has been excellent in 

 certain years (in 1911 it sold at $1 per dozen, the highest point 

 reached up to that time), usually the price has been low. In 1897 it 

 was quoted at 65 cents. In 1915 the opening price was 75 cents, but 

 as a matter of fact a large part of the pack really sold for 65 cents. 

 The lowest point it reached was in 1903, when it was quoted at 50 

 cents a dozen. As a result of the demand created by the war pink 

 salmon opened at 90 cents in 1916, $1.65 in 1917 and 1918, and $2.25 

 in 1919. The market collapsed under the last-named price, how- 

 ever, and since 1919 the average opening price has been $1,35. 



It is only of recent years that chum salmon has become a factor in 

 the market. Although sold for some time before then, chum salmon 

 appears first in the regular opening prices in 1908, when it was quoted 

 at 70 cents a dozen. In 1913 it was quoted at 55 cents while the 

 opening price in 1915 was 70 cents on Puget Sound and 65 cents at 

 San Francisco. During the war the opening prices on chums were 

 materially increased, being 85 cents in 1916, $1.60 in 1917, $1.75 in 

 1918, and $2.15 in 1919. As in the case of pinks, the market col- 

 lapsed under the 1919 price, and some sales under $1 were made in 

 1920. The following years the prices showed no appreciable gain 

 until 1928 when chum salmon was quoted at $1.60. 



