316 SEA FISHERIES 



display his wares, whether they consist of four or five 

 tons of fish or ten or a dozen mackerel. This regulation 

 may have been reasonable in the days when all the 

 fishermen used small sailing boats, but since the triumph 

 of the steam trawler it is literally grotesque. The injury 

 done to the large producer can be imagined ; for, offered 

 at the end of the market, his wares will have suffered a 

 depreciation amounting on some days to 20 or .25. 



You may suggest : " But nothing is easier than to sell 

 the fish outside the market." On the contrary : it is 

 impossible. All fish sold to the consumer direct or 

 through an intermediary (other than the auctioneer) is 

 taxed at the rate of twopence-halfpenny per kilogramme, 

 or more than a penny per pound. On January 22, 1909, 

 at 11.30 in the morning, a private person bought a lot of 

 herring at the market price for the sum of sevenpence-half- 

 penny. He had to pay a tax of three shillings and three- 

 pence-halfpenny ; that is, he paid the city five times the 

 price of the fish. So the fisherman is forced to carry his 

 fish to the market hall. If it is not sold at the end of the 

 day it will be stored overnight and taken out next day at 

 the opening of the market. But the auction is not 

 gratuitous : by no means. There is a due of 5 per cent, 

 on the value of the merchandise, and a supplementary 

 tax of 3 per cent, for auction rights, or in all 8 per cent. 



Ill 



Taxation of this sort is open to various criticisms. In 

 the first place, these taxes make life dearer for the poorer 

 classes ; then they constitute a progressive impost upon 

 food, which amounts to ^1,600 to ^2,000 a year. More- 

 over, the legality of the 3 per cent, tax is doubtful. " The 

 fish market is a municipal service, and the collectors of 

 the octroi and the auctioneer are municipal servants, who 



