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population, and at times when better articles of diet are scarce and in- 

 accessible. The general use of even the best kinds is very much con- 

 fined to Catholic countries ; and depends rather on a dogma of religion, 

 than on a principle of political economy. 



" Fish, therefore, must be an object of commerce very readily liable to 

 over-production ; and sudden fluctuations in the quantity taken, greatly 

 increase the difficulty of maintaining a proper ratio between demand 

 and supply. The fish market is constantly varying between extreme 

 points of glut and scarcity; and the necessary consequence must be a 

 low average profit to those engaged in its capture. 



" The fisheries, as an object of national importance, depend altogether 

 on a demand for the salted article, and that too in some more extensive 

 market than the immediate neighbourhood of the fisheries ordinarily 

 affords. Before such a market is found, and rendered accessible, it is 

 to no purpose that fish abound. They exist in the sea, as good land 

 lies in the back settlements of America. Both are susceptible of sup- 

 plying the wants of man; but both are useless, through their distance 

 from a centre of distribution. Again, the most productive fishing 

 grounds of the British Islands happen to lie principally off remote and 

 ill-inhabited coasts; and before they can become extensively available 

 to the native population, capital and industry must seek them out, and 

 bring to the spot all the materials for curing and for fishing on a large 

 scale. But in a climate tolerably genial, such a mode of investing 

 capital would hardly be adopted, until the demands of agriculture and 

 manufacture were tolerably satisfied. 



" Accordingly, it was the Dutch, who, having little land to cultivate, 

 and being dependent almost exclusively on commerce for subsistence, 

 were the first to render the fisheries a staple of national industry; and 

 they are still the only nation who have very largely depended on that 

 species of wealth for the source of their prosperity. In England, from 

 its earliest commercial existence, capital has found ample sources of 

 investment without embarking largely in the Fisheries. Although its 

 waters abound in fish, the trade for ages was very nearly confined to 

 the supply of the local markets : and it was not until the time of the 

 Stuarts that the fisheries excited public attention; when, owing to the 

 political jealousies then commencing between England and Holland, 

 the desire was formed of depriving the Dutch of their herring trade, 

 and of thus crippling her warlike resources. 



" In this anxiety to injure an enemy, the nation did not advert to the 

 different situations of the two countries; but rushing at once into a 

 cumbrous and expensive scheme for becoming impromptu fishermen, 

 they entered blindfold upon a series of experiments, from which even 

 now, they are not totally disengaged. The eagerness of the nation to 

 jump to the desired conclusion, would not brook the naturally slow 

 development of the trade; but strove by monopolies and privileges, by 

 bounties, &c., to force it into a precocious maturity. The result was, 

 (as might have been foreseen), reiterated failure; and it was not till 

 the war of the French Revolution had utterly annihilated the Dutch 

 commerce, that a real opening was made for the profitable investment 

 of British capital in this branch of industry.* To these causes of 



* " This eagerness to share in the spoils of the sea has not been confined to 

 England. The idea of forcing a national Fishery has prevailed amongst most 



