Whaling as a Business Enterprise 335 



begin the fishery anew at the end of the Civil 

 War as they were at the end of the War of the 

 Revolution. 



It may be noted, too, in passing, that other 

 American ship merchants were also in good finan- 

 cial condition at the end of the Civil War to renew 

 their trade upon the sea, if they had wished to 

 do so; that is, there was no lack of capital for 

 sea purposes. Yet the whaling fleet which had 

 numbered 508 vessels in 1860 numbered only 

 226 in 1865, and the number in 1866 was only 

 199, although the prices of products were then 

 higher than in 1865. 



Figures are prosy, but it should be interesting 

 to recall that the prices of all whale products in 

 the period of twenty years immediately following 

 the Civil War were, on the average, higher than 

 they were during the twenty years immediately 

 before that war, and that the price of whale- 

 bone increased enormously during the later period. 

 Thus sperm oil was selling at 73 cents in 1842 

 and at 82 in 1886. It was $1.45^ in 1860 and 

 $2.55 in 1866. Bone sold for 20 cents in 1841, 

 8oJ in 1860, $1.71 in 1865, and $2.6% in 1885. 



