io THE BRITISH FISH TRADE. 



mouth, and Lowestoft nearly one-sixth, or 6,000, sail from 

 the great Cornish and Devonshire ports Penzance, Fal- 

 mouth, Fowey, Plymouth, and Dartmouth. These nine 

 ports, therefore, supply nearly one-half of all the fishermen 

 of England and Wales. The whole coast line of Wales 

 does not support so many fishermen as the single town 

 of Lowestoft, or the Isle of Man. 



It must not be supposed that the 118,000 fishermen of 

 the British Islands are the only persons dependent on 

 fishing. The Scotch Commissioners estimate that, while 

 there are 48,000 fishermen in Scotland, there are 48,000 

 other persons (curers, coopers, &c.) dependent on the 

 fisheries. It is unlikely that a similar proportion is to be 

 found in other portions of the United Kingdom. The 

 Scotch trade, as will hereafter be shown, is essentially a 

 trade in cured fish ; the English, Irish, and Manx trade is 

 chiefly a trade in fresh fish. It does not require any 

 elaborate argument to show that a trade in cured fish must 

 necessarily employ more persons than a trade in fresh fish. 

 Perhaps it may be safe to assume that, while every fisher- 

 man afloat in Scotland finds employment for one other 

 person on shore, every two fishermen in the rest of the 

 British Islands finds work for one other person. In that 

 case the 48,000 fishermen of Scotland give work to 48,000 

 other persons ; and the 70,000 other fishermen in the British 

 Islands afford employment to 35,000 other persons. And 

 thus the grand total may be reached, that 201,000, or say 

 200,000, people are dependent on the fisheries of the British 

 Islands for their livelihood. 



It is probably even more difficult to ascertain exactly the 

 amount of capital embarked in the fisheries than to esti- 

 mate the extent of work which they afford. But, in this 

 respect, help may again be derived from the returns of 



