164 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



throughout its operation, for the benefit of individual rather 

 than corporate interests; it needed but little argument by 

 the representative from Massachusetts to show "that the 

 prime, medium, and final object of this series of statutes 

 was, and is, the cultivation of seamen by the encouragement 

 of a business which, in itself, was, and is, too poor to be 

 sustained. ' ' 



The amount of allowances paid fishing vessels under the 

 act of 1819 for the forty years between the first of January, 

 1820 and the thirtieth of June, 1859, was $10,626,201.13, 

 which gives an average of $265,655 per annum. The high- 

 est amount paid in one year was in 1857, when the allow- 

 ances reached $464,178. 1 The amount of allowances 

 granted to fishing vessels under the several acts before 1820 

 was $2,328,517.68, and the estimated amount granted from 

 June 30th, 1859 to the repeal of the Act of 1819 in 1866 was 

 $2,500,000. The total amount of allowances granted from 

 the enactment of the first act in 1792 to the repeal of the 

 last act in 1866 was between fourteen and fifteen million 

 dollars. 2 



During the period from 1818 to 1866, duties upon fish 

 imported into the country were levied by several tariff acts. 

 By the Act of 1816, duties were levied on foreign caught 

 fish at one dollar per quintal, on mackerel at one and one- 

 half dollars per barrel, on salmon at two dollars per barrel, 



1 36th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Docs., Vol. I, No. 41, pp. 14-15. 



2 The geographical distribution of allowances to vessels engaged 

 in the codfishery may be seen in the following statement, which 

 shows the amount paid to each State from the commencement of the 

 government to the 30th of June, 1859. 



Maine $ 4,175,050 



New Hampshire 563,134 



Massachusetts 7,926,273 



Rhode Island 182,853 



New York 78,890 



Virginia 479 



Total $12,944,998 



