EVOLUTION OF THE FRENCH FISHERIES 297 



mittee (Commission) of the Marine of the Chamber of 

 Deputies requested the advice of the Central Committee 

 of the Shipowners of France and the Consultative Com- 

 mittee of Maritime Fisheries. Their advice was un- 

 favourable to M. Lamy's proposal. "Steam-trawling," 

 said the two committees, " must be encouraged. The 

 steam trawler does not enter into competition with sail- 

 ing vessels. The large steam trawlers work in the open 

 sea, at a depth of 28 to no fathoms, and only capture 

 adult fish, on account of the large size of the mesh em- 

 ployed : whereas the small fishermen always work in- 

 shore, and thus destroy the reserves of fry and young fish, 

 a destruction by which no one profits. Secondly, the 

 enormous quantities of fish landed by the steam trawlers, 

 so far from lowering prices, actually increase them. 

 This is proved by the statistics prepared by the ' Syndicat 

 des armateurs de peche de Boulogne/ which show that 

 the market prices of fish have undergone an average 

 augmentation of 26*47 P er cen ^. since the introduction of 

 steam-trawling." Certain shipowners, on the other hand, 

 particularly those of Dieppe, went so far as to demand 

 that the maritime authorities should force all fishermen 

 to keep the provisions of the law of 1838, which forbade 

 them to fish during the summer in the estuaries or on 

 sand-banks. 



Let us consider the remarkable defence of steam- 

 trawling published by M. Daniel Bellett. " It is perfectly 

 well known," writes the eminent professor, " by all 

 those who have made a study of the facts of economics, 

 that the development of machinery benefits everyone, 

 producers as well as consumers. The advent of steam 

 trawlers has resulted in the payment of comparatively 

 high wages to fishermen who were miserably vegetating 

 on board their sailing vessels, as is only natural, when we 



