THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 323 



compelled to bring losses on the fish-catchers when it is 

 imperative for the merchant to compound with his creditors. 

 The element of chance, that a bad voyage may, after all, 

 turn out a good one, adds another attraction to fishing, 

 however monotonous it may appear. The love of a gamble 

 is innate in man. Of late years there has been a consider- 

 ably larger quantity of fish exported by smaller men, but 

 the tendency is to confine the actual export process to 

 the larger firms. 



Naturally the Norwegian catch influences the total supply 

 very materially, and a failure there means better prices 

 here. The French can scarcely afford to export fish, for 

 they are paid such high bounties for taking it to France. 



Happily for the fish-catcher, the markets for salt fish 

 are not only opening up wonderfully, but the price obtain- 

 able has also been steadily increasing, and has risen from 

 2.22 cents per pound to 4.74 cents in the last six years. 

 This, more than anything else, explains the general pros- 

 perity of our people. For the rise in the market price is 

 out of all proportion to any increase in the amount of fish 

 taken. There is good reason to suppose that this rise in 

 price will be maintained as long as the article exported 

 is properly cured. The wealth and numbers of the 

 peoples requiring this produce are steadily increasing, and 

 other proteid foods are rising in price synchronously. It 

 seems, therefore, that in this respect our future is still in 

 our own hands, and that there are yet halcyon days in store 

 for our folk that "go sailing out into the deep." 



The import duties imposed by our customers vary 

 greatly. France prohibits foreign cod altogether, with a 

 tariff of $4.68 per quintal, besides giving bounties to her own 



