322 SEA FISHERIES 



struck in a drink-shop, and it is sealed by an often 

 excessive amount of wine or spirits, which the fisherman 

 has to drink on the spot. The consequences of this 

 system are easy to foretell. Forced by his precarious 

 finances to take a cash price for his fish, obliged to 

 accept the conditions of the merchant, who has advanced 

 him goods or money, and unable therefore to benefit 

 by any competition among the buyers, the fisherman 

 is at the mercy of the latter. One does not require 

 much knowledge of human nature to guess at the 

 manner in which such a man is exploited. The some- 

 times incredible differences in the prices of certain fish 

 in port and on the markets corroborates these state- 

 ments." 



In some towns the master-fishermen (patrons-pecheurs) 

 have founded societies (syndicats de vente) in order to 

 defend themselves against the middlemen ; but not 

 being provided with sufficient capital, they were unable 

 to maintain them. At the end of 1897 they created 

 a co-operative society of sale and consumption : " Les 

 Pecheurs franfais." This society soon disappeared. 

 The Musee social then resolved to take the initiative 

 and to found yet another society : " La Peche co- 

 operative/' Here are the principal rules of this society 

 as given by M. Roussin : " The capital will be variable 

 in this sense, that the fishermen, entering at the outset 

 in uncertain numbers, but afterwards forming in groups 

 about the first adherents, must be interested in the 

 society to the extent of holding each a share of ^i value, 

 which will bear an interest which we have limited to 

 4 per cent., payable out of the reserve capital, and 

 ranking first. As for the rest of this reserve, it will 

 be divided at the end of the business year among the 

 shareholders in proportion to their productiveness : 



