334 SEA FISHERIES 



operation as affecting the various ports, preserving and 

 enlarging the best and eliminating the worst. 



The French imports of fish amount to -2,000,000 ; the 

 exports to .1,200,000 only. The national consumption 

 does not amount to more than .5,600,000. 



France sells sardines in oil to the United States, 

 Germany, Great Britain, Russia, Denmark, Belgium, 

 Holland, Switzerland, Egypt, Algeria, and the Argen- 

 tine ; salt or dried cod to Italy, Spain, Greece, Algeria, 

 Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion, and French Guiana ; 

 various preserved fish to the United States, Great Britain, 

 Belgium, Switzerland, and Algeria ; fresh fish to Spain, 

 Switzerland, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, and Germany. 



Sardines in oil are a typically French export. Unhap- 

 pily, the recent crises on the coast have done the trade 

 considerable damage. While a case of 100 boxes, with 

 10 fish in each, costs i 8s. yd. in abundant years and 

 2 45. to 2 8s. in lean years, a like case of Spanish 

 sardines is priced at i to i 2s. 5d. in Bordeaux 

 market. To Spanish we must now add Algerian and 

 Japanese competition. In Algeria the net price is higher 

 than in Spain. A case of Japanese sardines in oil costs 

 i 48. i id. free on board at Kobe. Counterfeit goods 

 have come to the aid of competition ; but the law of 

 July n, 1906, relating to the protection of the sardine 

 trade against foreign counterfeits is, says M. Le Bail, the 

 author of this law, a decisive factor of safety. Spanish 

 or Portuguese or Japanese sardines used to be imported 

 in plain tins of large or small size, or in tins printed with 

 fictitious labels, and after certain ingenious manipula- 

 tions were re-exported as French goods. This evil 

 repaired, M. Le Bail now threatens Algeria; he does not 

 consider that Algerian products should be sold as 

 French. This is going a little too far, as Algeria is 



