106 FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



some time, of the greater number of those upon the North 

 Shore as well, in their practical monopoly of the industry, 

 for so many years, and in the remarkable condition, amount- 

 ing practically to serfdom, in which they held their employes, 

 the only parallel furnished by the previous history of this 

 country was that of the fur trade 

 and the Hudson Bay Company. 



Enormous success attended the 

 Robin enterprise. Its commerce 

 grew by leaps and bounds, and 

 branch establishments were founded 

 at Perce, Caraquet, Arichat, and 

 other points. 



In the middle of last century its 

 annual export of fish to Spain, Hayti, 

 and Brazil, amounted to 40,000 quin- 

 tals, and twenty ships were employ- 

 Dr. John M. Clarke e d in its foreign commerce. 



Sixty years after the founding of the Paspebiac estab- 

 lishment, a former clerk of the Robins, Mr. David Lebouthil- 

 ier, established a rival house on the coast, and after an exist- 

 ence of a quarter of a century, his exports of dry cod fish 

 amounted to 25,000 to 30,000 quintals annually. 



DR. CLARK'S DESCRIPTION OF THE ROBINS. 



By far the best sketch yet published of these big Jersey 

 fishing establishments has been furnished by Dr. John M. 

 Clarke, of Albany, 1 from whom we take the following : 



"It was not until after the fall of Quebec that capitalists 

 from the Channel Islands became interested in this Gaspe 

 fishing, and among the first of these were members of the 

 Robin family, of Jersey. The Robins were established on 

 Bay Chaleur in 1764, and probably on Cape Breton as early, 

 doing business in the latter place under the firm name of 



i Sketches of Gaspe by John M. Clarke, Albany, 1908, p 58, 

 et seq. 



