326 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



its abrogation, Nova Scotia increased in wealth and pros- 

 perity at a most extraordinary rate; from its abrogation 

 to the present, (1869) we have retrograded at a most 

 frightful rapidity. ' ' 1 



The causes that led to the abrogation of the treaty in 

 1866 were, first, the Americans realized in a few years 

 that the loss of revenue from the remission of duty on 

 Canadian imports far exceeded the value of the fishing 

 liberties conceded to the American fishermen; second, the 

 high taxes brought about by the Civil War so increased the 

 cost of living and the price of labor in this country that 

 the American farmer found it impossible to compete with 

 the Canadian farmer in the production of the articles in- 

 cluded in the free list of the reciprocity treaty ; and finally, 

 there is reason to believe that the hostile attitude assumed 

 by Canada towards the North during the war hastened the 

 abrogation of the treaty on the part of our statesmen. 

 The resolution for the abrogation of the reciprocity treaty 

 passed the House by a vote of 88 to 54; it passed the 

 Senate by a vote of 33 to 8, and went into effect on the 

 seventeenth of March, 1866. 2 



The stipulations of the Reciprocity Treaty in regard to 

 the fisheries were "in addition to those of the convention 

 of 1818 "; therefore, when the treaty was abrogated, the 

 fisheries arrangements between the two governments again 

 rested upon the Convention of 1818. The ambiguous 

 clauses of that arrangement were still unsettled, so that 

 all the old disputes were revived later. 



After the abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty in 1866, 

 the British authorities resorted to the system of licenses, 

 which were issued to American vessels wishing to enjoy 

 the privileges of inshore fishing in Canadian waters. The 

 rate at first was fixed at fifty cents per ton but within two 



1 Elliott, p. 75, quoting Halifax Chronicle. 



2 Snow, p. 445. 



