196 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



in spite of 

 which more 

 and more 

 British 

 ships went 

 to New- 

 foundland, 

 i?>2,6 etseq.f 



a7td New- 

 found- 

 landers 

 began to 

 strengthen 

 the Nazy^ 

 T9C0, 



It is one of the paradoxes of history that the total 

 disappearance of the British fishing-fleet from the waters of 

 Newfoundland increased the number of British ocean-going 

 ships connected with the fishery. According to theorists their 

 number should have been halved ; but in practice it was 

 tripled. In the middle of last century a second but less 

 startling historical paradox occurred. The relaxation and 

 repeal of the Navigation Laws confining colonial trade to 

 British ships was accomplished in 1849, and instead of 

 diminishing added to the number of British ships trading with 

 the colony. A third paradox occurred in 1900, when New- 

 foundland fishermen were drafted into the Naval Reserve for 

 the first time. For two centuries and a half Newfoundland 

 was regarded as a prime source of naval strength ; but it was 

 nearly a century after this theory was abandoned that New- 

 foundlanders began to contribute sailors to the Royal Navy. 

 In the following table, which illustrates these two first 

 paradoxes, three periods have been taken fifty years apart : 

 the first period is the last peaceful period of five years during 

 which British fishing-ships came to Newfoundland; the 

 second period is the last period before the Forties when the 

 Navigation Laws petered out; and the third period illus- 

 trates a typical modern lustre. 



Averages. 



1786-1790 1836-40 1886-90 1906 



British ships cleared inwards „^^ o._^ _.., ^.o. 



in Newfoundland. ^H 850 ^442 1583 



Ratio of Progress 32 53 91 100 



and began Newfoundlanders began to rely exclusively on boats for 



to build and ^}^q[t^ principal fishery; yet by another paradox the colonial 



Ihe ^ Banks, fishing-ships increased. The fishery of Newfoundland became 



a shore-fishery, and nothing else, because a shore-fishery 



