108 <A History of the American Whale Fishery. 
in a rapidly-growing foreign market as in the increased 
consumption at home. In a way this circumstance was 
a direct reversal of the conditions at the close of the 
Revolution. At that time loss of the foreign, especially 
the important British, markets was the prime cause of 
the fluctuations in whaling prosperity. The home 
demands at that time were not great enough to support a 
flourishing industry and the merchants had been com- 
pelled to look to foreign markets for a good share of their 
profits. But after 1820 by far the larger part of the whale 
oils went into the markets of this country. Whalebone, 
on the contrary, has almost always seemed to find its 
greatest demands in European markets. 
The growth of imports from year to year may be seen 
from a study of Table III in Appendix I. From 1825 to 
1835 the imports of sperm oil had risen from about 
2,000,000 gallons to over 5,000,000 gallons. The quantity 
of whale oil had increased, by 1837, from a little over 
1,600,000 to over 6,300,000 gallons in a single year. 
And the yield of whalebone had risen from less than 
200,000 pounds, previous to 1829, to over 2,000,000 
pounds by 1840. 
During the same years the exports of sperm oil had not 
risen above 300,000 gallons and except in two years they 
had not exceeded 100,000 gallons annually. Of the 
whale oil and whale bone, however, between a third and 
a half of the total imports were finding their way into the 
foreign trade of the country. In another connection 
attention has been called to the fluctuations from year 
to year characteristic of the whale fishery. The same 
feature is found in a study of the annual exports. A 
comparison of the number of vessels and tonnage of 
the fleet with the amount of annual imports shows no 
definite inter-relationship. Nor is there any apparent 
connection between the quantities of oil and bone im- 
ported and the amounts sent to foreign markets. 
For example to look at the years when imports and 
