310 SEA FISHERIES 



tremely timid, as is always the way in France. The 

 working capital was often uncertain, and the employees 

 too numerous. Too much material, too many expenses, 

 low profits : these three conditions point to three funda- 

 mental errors which are easy of correction. 



The other causes are more complex, for they reside in 

 the economic life of the nation. Coal is dearer in France 

 than in England ; but that is in no way the fault of the 

 French. All that we can do is to combine as purchasers, 

 so as to obtain a lower price. Any one who has cast his 

 eyes on the balance-sheets of a trawler company will tell 

 you that the French trawler loses profits which accrue to 

 the English trawler even before it leaves the port; these 

 profits, of course, being the difference in the price of 

 coal in France and in England. More: the costliness of 

 certain indispensable materials is complicated by diffi- 

 culties relating to the sale of fish. There are too many 

 intermediaries ; the municipal octroi taxes are prohibitive, 

 and transport is badly organised. These are serious 

 hindrances, which I shall deal with further in these last 

 chapters of this book. 



We must not forget, however, that the limited com- 

 pany is, according to Bastiat's phrase, a tissue of soli- 

 darities. The malady from which the maritime fisheries 

 of France are suffering may certainly be imputed to 

 special causes; but if we look into the matter closely 

 we shall find it is a part of the social malady. The 

 reader is by now roughly acquainted with the broad 

 outlines of the fisheries of Europe, both French and 

 otherwise, and is in a position to compare those of 

 France with the others. Here and there we find different 

 methods and different results; but where fisheries are 

 declining, as in Belgium, we find behind them the old 

 French organisation. France lags behind England, 



