150 THE HERRING FISHERY 



down in pans with coal from Newcastle and 

 Sunderland, which coal was liable to a duty 

 of 5s. 4i^jjd, per chalder; Limmington salt 

 therefore paid double duty, first on the coal, 

 then on the salt. At Liverpool rock salt was 

 dissolved in sea water, making therewith the 

 strongest possible brine. The importation of 

 salt from Northwich in Cheshire (Norwich, as 

 Lord Dundonald calls it) was only permitted in 

 the case of the ports of England and Wales, 

 in Swansea, Holyhead, Lawnmarsh, and such 

 places as were within ten miles of the salt pans ; 

 elsewhere its use was prohibited, but it could 

 be exported duty free to Ireland whither coal 

 could be exported at the moderate duty of 

 Is, l^od, per chalder. The favourable position 

 of Ireland thus enabled her to supply three- 

 quarters of the west coast of Scotland with 

 smuggled salt, and this preferential treatment 

 is further illustrated by the fact that Irish 

 fishermen were exempt from many of the 

 restrictions imposed upon British fishermen. 

 They could load their boats as they liked, 

 either by capturing the herring, or by purchas- 

 ing them from other fishermen. The Irish 

 Parliament granted a bounty on the salt used 

 for the herring fishery between June, 1784, and 

 June, 1785, and encouraged the capture of 

 herring by giving bounties to industries which 

 were branches of the herring fishing, and by 

 imposing a duty of 4>s. per barrel on imported 

 Swedish herring in 1777, the duty being 



