256 THE BOUNTY SYSTEM. [CHAP. vr. 



The whole system of commerce connected with this trade is 

 decidedly unhealthy, and ought at once to be checked and re- 

 constructed if there be any logical method of doing it. At a 

 port of three hundred boats a sum of 145 was paid by the 

 curers for "arles," and spent in the public-houses ! More than 

 4000 was paid in bounties, and an advance of nearly 7000 

 made on the various contracts, and all this money was paid 

 eight months before the fishing began. When the season is a 

 favourable one and plenty of fish are taken, then all goes well, 

 and the evil day is postponed ; but if, as in one or two recent 

 seasons, the take is poor, then there comes a crash. One falls, 

 and, like a row of bricks, the others all follow. At the large 

 fishing stations there are comparatively few of the boats that 

 are thoroughly free : they are tied up in some way between 

 the buyers and curers, or they are in pawn to some merchant 

 who " backs " the nominal owner. The principal, or at least 

 the immediate sufferers by these arrangements are the hired 

 men. 



This "bounty," as it is called, is a most reprehensible 

 feature of herring commerce, and although still the prevalent 

 mode of doing business, has been loiidly declaimed against by 

 all who have the real good of the fishermen at heart. Often 

 enough men who have obtained boats and nets on credit, and 

 hired persons to assist them during the fishery, are so unfor- 

 tunate as not to catch enough of herrings to pay their expenses. 

 The curers for whom they engaged to fish having retained most 

 of the bounty money on account of boats and nets, consequently 

 the hired servants have frequently in such cases to go home 

 sometimes to a great distance penniless. It would be much 

 better if the old system of a share were re-introduced : in that 

 case the hired men would at least participate to the extent of 

 the fishing, whether it were good or bad. Boat-owners try of 

 course to get as good terms as possible, as well in the shape 

 of price for herrings as in bounty and perquisites. For an 



