98 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



and mesh nets, and, after being split and salted, were 

 barreled for the negro trade. 



In 1750, two hundred vessels were employed in the mack- 

 erel and other small fisheries for the trade with the West 

 Indies ; in the codfishery, four hundred vessels ; in the whale 

 fishery in the North Atlantic, especially in the Gulf of 

 Saint Lawrence, one hundred vessels. 1 Half of the catch 

 of codfish was the refuse fish suitable only for the West 

 Indies. It was estimated in 1755 that the Barbadoes took 

 merchandise from New England amounting annually to 

 100,000 pounds sterling. 



The growing dependence of Great Britain upon the 

 American colonies for articles of trade and commerce, and 

 the important place that the fisheries and allied industries 

 held in this trade is clearly indicated by a writer of the 

 day, who says, "It is from American Colonies our Royal 

 Navy is supplied in a great Measure with Masts of all Sizes 

 and our Naval Stores, as well as our Merchant Ships, it is 

 from them we have our Vast Fleets of Merchant Ships, and 

 consequently an increase of Seamen; it is from them our 

 Men of War in the American World are on any occasion 

 man'd, and our Troops there augmented and recruited; 

 it is from them we have our Silver and Gold either by 

 their trade with foreigners in America, or by the way of 

 Spain, Portugal, and Italy, in payment for their immense 

 Quantities of Fish, Rice, &, it is from them we have all 

 our tobacco, Rice, Rum, and most of our sugars. Dyeing 

 and other valuable Woods, Cotton-Wool, Ginger, Indico, 

 Whale, and Liver Oil and Whale-bone, Beaver and other 

 Furs, Deer Skins, and innumerable other articles. ' ' 2 



After the fall of Louisburg, in 1758, and the reduction 

 of Quebec the following year had prevented the French 

 from making further monopoly of the fisheries of the Gulf 



1 Weeden, II, pp. 641, 644. 



2 Huske, The Present State of North America, pp. 56-57. 



