286 SEA FISHERIES 



III 



Except for the inevitable disputes between employers 

 and employed, the cod fishery is a peaceable industry. 

 Such has not been the fate of the sardine, which has 

 aroused the most violent passions. So much has been 

 written concerning the sardine fishery in Brittany that 

 I will leave the matter alone ; everything has been said, 

 and I come too late. Yet one may always repeat what 

 others have said ; not much would be written if one 

 did not ! 



The sardine question has four aspects. Firstly, we 

 must consider the fishery itself ; secondly, the relations 

 between the fishermen and the bait-merchants ; thirdly, 

 the relations between the fishermen and the manufac- 

 turers ; fourthly, the relations between the manufacturers 

 and the packers or solderers. These four aspects, or, 

 shall we say ? series of relations, are inextricably con- 

 nected ; that is, if a dispute occurs between two parties 

 of any one pair, the whole organisation is more or less 

 badly dislocated. In the case of the cod fishery, the 

 shipowners are capitalists, dealing as such with their 

 crews ; in the sardine fisheries of the Breton coast there 

 are no owners, or rather the fishermen themselves are 

 the owners, and are workers on the share system. This 

 distinction is fraught with important consequences. 



From Camaret to Sables-d'Olonne there is practically 

 no fishery but the sardine fishery. Now the sardine 

 harvest, with the methods at present in use, is extremely 

 irregular. In 1894 it amounted to 11,000 tons; in 1898 

 it rose to 51,000 tons, and immediately afterwards fell to 

 25,000 ; in 1902 it had fallen to 8,000 tons. In 1904 it 

 rose again to 23,000 tons, and in 1907 fell to 3,000. 

 From these fluctuations continual disorder results : 



