486 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



inhabitants. This latter restriction was a proper and wise 

 one, and could have called for no reasonable complaint. The 

 withholding from American fishermen of the Newfoundland 

 shores for the purpose of curing fish was regarded as unfortu- 

 nate, for these being nearer the Banks were more convenient 

 for the establishment of shore stations. Had American citi- 

 zens been accorded this one additional right to the Bothers 

 acquired by the treaty, there would virtually have been no 

 distinction drawn between American and English fishermen 

 in their freedom of movements in Canadian territorial 

 waters or on Canadian soil. 



IV 



At the close of the Revolutionary War, the fisheries were 

 substantially annihilated, and their restoration to a condition 

 of vigor was neither immediate nor rapid. An order issued 

 by proclamation (July, 1783) in London, prohibited the 

 importation of American fish into British West Indian 

 ports. This action was a telling blow to the greatly weak- 

 ened American industry, and adverse tariff regulations in 

 various foreign markets added to the causes that retarded 

 its growth. To offset these depressing foreign influences, 

 efforts were made by Congress to stimulate the languishing 

 fisheries by means of bounties. In 1789 an act was passed 

 allowing a bounty of five cents per quintal on all dried, and 

 five cents a barrel on all pickled (salted) fish exported, and, 

 at the time, imposing a duty on fish imported into the United 

 States. Even this encouragement seems to have been insuf- 

 ficient, for the fishermen of Gloucester soon after presented 

 a petition to Congress setting forth a grievous story of their 

 losses, with a prayer for further measures of relief. 



The necessity of reviving the fisheries seems to have been 

 generally accepted by the legislators of the period. The 

 reasons given were not simply that the industry was in itself 

 a valuable one and promised wealth to its followers, but 

 higher considerations of national utility were advanced for 

 its encouragement. President Washington, in 1790, an- 



