i8o THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE WITH 



bringing fish to the London markets and to the other great 

 towns of England. At the same time, by another Act 

 (42 Geo. III. c. 3), the bounties on the export of herrings 

 were temporarily discontinued, on the ground that such a 

 course was "highly expedient for procuring a supply of 

 good and wholesome food for the consumption of the 

 United Kingdom." 



After such an experience as this it is surprising that a 

 revival of the export bounties should have been tolerated. 

 Yet the system was again resorted to a year or two later. 

 It had, however, received its death blow, and the amounts 

 paid were gradually reduced, the bounty on pilchards 

 finally expiring in 1826, and that on herrings, cod, and 

 ling, in 1829. 



Did the Whether the bounties had any real effect in laying the 



" encourage " foundation of the wonderful prosperity which the herring 

 fisheries have enjoyed since their abolition is open to ques- 

 tion. Many eminent authorities have maintained that they 

 had no appreciable effect in encouraging the fishery, and 

 that the fishermen went to sea to catch, not the fish, but 

 the bounty. Even if it be granted that the fishery did 

 receive a stimulus in the early days of the system, it is 

 certain that it was not maintained by it in its later days, or 

 the fishery would certainly have shown signs of a relapse 

 after 1829. But the statistics which have happily been 

 furnished by the Board of White Herring Fishery tell no 

 Effect of such tale. In the twenty years preceding 1829 the average 

 t b hTifaboHtion number of herrings cured amounted to 271,703 barrels 

 herrhf tr d annua ^y- ^ n tne twenty years succeeding 1829 the average 

 annual cure was nearly double, or 530,389 barrels. In the 

 next period of twenty years a period which, it must be 

 remembered, embraced the seventeen years during which 

 the restrictive or protective legislation, already referred to, 





