200 J. G. BOUEINOT 



reports from its officers iu America of everything touching the government, and the social, 

 religious, and commercial condition of every one of its colonies, including Cape Breton. 

 One estimate of the Cape Breton fisheries — a " supputation," as it is called iu the French 

 document — obviously from an English source, gives 560 as the total number of brigantines, 

 shallops, and other craft, and 3,400 as the total number of men employed iu that branch 

 of business in Cape Breton, previous to the taking of Louisbourg in 174:5. The total 

 quantity of fish yearly made in the island is estimated at 186,000 quintals, valued at 

 about i;93,000 sterling. The total value of the fisheries of the Grulf and Newfoundland, 

 more or less dependent on the possession by France of the Island, and the maintenance of 

 a strong fortress atone of its ports, is given at c€981,692.10 sterling. At the time in 

 question, it was estimated by the same authority that there were at least 414 vessels and 

 24,520 men engaged in the Gulf fisheries, and that the value of the annual catch was 

 probably j£l, 152,000 sterling. This estimate is evidently calculated with a view to give 

 the English government the most favourable view of the importance of Cape Breton, and 

 to prevent them restoring it to the French.' The official statements of the French, now 

 accessible iu the French archives, do not bear out the large estimate just mentioned. The 

 official report of 1*753 ' to the French government gives the following statistics of the 

 value of the fisheries and trade of Cape Breton in that year : — 



THE FISHERIES. 



Vessels of all classes employed 300 



p , „, / 98,450 quintals 



ï^'°<^"«'« i 11,547 bbls. of oil 



Estimated value in French livres 2,084,450 



TRADE. 



Imports from Fiance, West Indies, in French livres' L',176,220 



Exports 1,520,825 



The difference between the imports and exports, 645,395 livres — and a similar state of 

 things existed in most years— indicates on the face of the return a large balance against 

 the colony, but it may be accounted for in several ways. First of all, the imports 

 probably include a large quantity of provisions, clothing, and other goods sent out by the 

 government for the use of the garrison and officials, and which of course demanded no 

 commercial returns. A good deal of the merchandise entered at Louisbourg was sent for 

 sale on commission, and no returns were made available until another year. A considerable 



' Brown ("Hist, of C. B.," p. 340) gives an estimate of the French fisheries wliich is obviously very mucli 

 exaggerated. The whole catch before 1758 is given at nearly a million of quintals and the number of decked 

 vessels at 726 and of shallops at 1,555, employing altogether fifteen thousand men. Louisbourg appears by this 

 statement to have alone employed 600 vessels and shallops and 8,400 men. This estimate is so much beyond 

 even the "supputation" mentioned in the text, and so entirely at variance with the several official stutements 

 given in App. XVIII to this work, and all others that I have been able to consult in the English or French archives, 

 that it is impossible to accept it as authoritative in any particular. Brown received the statement from a well 

 known resident of Cape Breton, but it will be seen that the original source of information is not given by him. 

 It is just possible that it includes the French vessels that came out every spring for the fishery and returned in 

 the autumn to France ; but even so, it is altogether improbable that in the two years before 1758 — a time of war — 

 the fishing industry should have been prosecuted with so much energy ofi'Çape Breton. The Sgures we give for 

 1753, from French oHicial sources, a.ssuredly illustrate the most favourable conditions of industry and commerce from 

 1749 to 1758 in the island. 



« See App. XVIII (IV.) to this work. 



' A livre was worth about Is. 4d. of English money, or Ifr. 66 centimes of French money, present values. 



