3 
amounted to Rs. 43,500. The total net profit of this 
fishery for the 27 years noted amounted to no less than 
Rs. 15,26,336 against a sum of Rs. 15,64,071 obtained 
during the same period from the pearl fishery. 
Thereafter, with the exception of a series of eight 
years between 1843-44 and 1850-51 and the year 
1874-75 the revenue obtained during the period when 
the fishing was rented out dropped in a remarkable 
manner to a very low average—reaching the minimum 
of Rs. 1,000 in 1833-34, while the fishery was actually 
discontinued during the year 1851-52. Throughout the 
whole period comprised between 1801 and 1876, the 
fishery was farmed out to the highest bidder, who under- 
took the entire organization and conduct of the fishery, 
Government exercising no control over the operations. 
During the later years of this period the farmers of this 
monopoly were usually either Mr. Cocq or Mr. Barter, 
two merchants of the old school long resident in 
Tuticorin. 
With the knowledge we now have it is very clear 
that the profits reaped by the renters were comparatjvely 
very great, especially as the rate they paid the divers was 
two-thirds only of that now ruling. It was therefore 
greatly to their interest to be on good terms with their 
employees and the older men among the divers love to 
dwell upon what they consider the good old times when 
rum and arrack flowed freely every day and sheep were 
slaughtered for the Christmas feast. It appears indeed 
to have been the practice to make a free distribution of 
a large tot of arrack to the men immediately they reached 
shore, with various gifts and loans from time to time and 
particularly of sheep at Christmas time. So although 
the men received Rs. 20 only (or even less) per 1,000 
shells instead of the Rs. 31-4-0 now given, the glamour 
of this memory of the era of free drinks makes them sigh 
for the good old days, now gone for ever. 
Mr. Cocq appears as the renter first on the scene. 
Originally he worked the fishery through four (?) sam- 
mattis who bought up the shells at the lowest rates they 
could manage to arrange and resold to their principal at 
Rs. 20 per 1,000. When Mr. Barter, a cotton presser 
who owned the buildings now occupied by the Caldwell 
High School in Tuticorin, entered into competition with 
