HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 169 



" Since the peace, which was concluded by the negotiations at Ghent, difficulties 

 have attended the pursuit of this business on some parts of the coasts of the British 

 Provinces, in consequence of an abandonment of some of the previous privileges on the 

 western coasts of those Provinces, or an ambiguity in the provisions of the treaty, 

 which has produced feelings of acrimony between the fishermen of the two nations. 



" It has been pursued with various degrees of success at different periods. For a few 

 years succeeding the peace, the stock of fish on the Grand Bank, Labrador Coast, 

 and other fishing-grounds, appeared to have been greatly replenished ; operations in 

 the business were successful, and its pursuit became generally extended. The tonnage 

 employed in 1815 was about 8,000 tons, and in 1816 about 18,000 tons. 



" A laudable spirit of enterprise, and a conviction of the advantages resulting to the 

 laboring classes from its prosecution, determined the citizens of Newburyport and other 

 towns to attempt its further extension. Companies were formed in several of our sea- 

 ports, with extensive capitals, and managed by agents selected for their experience in 

 the business ; but owing to ill-success in some of their voyages, the depressed prices of 

 its products, and their shipment to European and other foreign markets, which derived 

 sufficient supplies from their own fisheries and those of other nations (which, owing to 

 the general peace in Europe, were enabled to resume the business), they all proved un- 

 successful, and the results were generally disastrous to the stockholders ; — furnishing 

 good evidence that, in a country like our own, individual enterprise offers the surest 

 prospect of success in all branches of business, where the amount of capital or the par- 

 ticular location requisite for its prosecution does not prevent the attainment of its 

 means, and thereby render a resort to combined effort necessary for its accomplishment. 



" Of late years, an entire change of markets for the products of this fishery, so far as 

 it respects the large-sized fish, has taken place. Since the opening of the Erie Canal, 

 and the increase of population and means of conveyance consequent thereto, an in- 

 creasing demand for this article has taken place in that quarter ; so that New York 

 and Albany markets, which previously required a few thousand quintals for their 

 annual supply, now afford a demand, for their own markets and those above, for nearly 

 150,000 quintals ; as their annual supplies, and the increasing facilities for transporta- 

 tion by canals and railroads from other Southern and Western cities, create an increas- 

 ing demand for the supply of those markets. 



" The foreign export has diminished in a ratio proportionate to the increase in de- 

 mand for domestic markets; — from upwards of $ 2,500,000 from 1803 to 1806, it has 

 been less than $ 1,000,000 for the last ten years The products of this fish- 

 ery, in Essex County, exceed $ 600,000 annually. 



