86 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



harmony of action upon this point. In regard to the effect the ex- 

 isting English laws would have upon the interest which is under consid- 

 eration here, he wrote : "It is very true, their encouragement of their 

 whale-fishery, by suffering the alien duty on oil to depress ours, will in- 

 crease their shipping in this branch, increase their seamen, and, in sev- 

 eral other ways, be advantageous to them. To a person that looks no 

 farther, it would appear that this was good policy; and the goodness 

 of it Mould be inferred from the advantages arising. But when he 

 should extend his view, and see how that stoppage of the American 

 whale-fishery, by depriving the Americans of so much capital a means 

 of paying for the woolen goods they used to take of Britain, must, at 

 the same time, occasion the American demand to cease, or be propor- 

 tionately diminished, not to mention the risk of a change or deviation 

 of the trade from the old channel, he will calculate the national profit 

 and loss that arises from that stoppage. 



"Three thousand tons of oil was the usual annual quantity produced by 

 the whalemen at Nantucket ; all of which was shipped to England, at 

 an average price of £35 per ton, making about £105,500. The whole of 

 which went to pay for and purchase a like amount of woolens and 

 other British goods; nine-tenths of the value of which are computed to 

 arise from the labor of the manufacturer, and to be so much clear gain 

 to the nation. The other tenth, therefore, being deducted, gives the 

 national gain arising from the industry of the Nantucket whalemen, 

 and the capital employed in that business, namely £94,500, without the 

 nation's paying a shilling for the risk of insurance, or any other risk 

 whatever. 



"On the change of trade, pursuant to the new regulations, the British 

 merchants must employ a large capital in the whale-fishery, whose prod- 

 ucts we will suppose equal to that of the Nantucket, £105,000. They 

 will have made an exceeding good voyage, if the whole of that sum should 

 be equal to one-half of the cost of the outfits ; though, from many of the 

 vessels not meeting with fish, and from a variety of accidents to which 

 such a voyage is subject, it probably would not be a quarter. The 

 whole of the product goes towards payment of the outfits and charges 

 of the voyage, and a large sum must be advanced for the second voy- 

 age, &c. 



"Now, although this mode of commerce would be productive of some 

 national benefits, yet, considered in a comparative view with the bene- 

 fits arising from the former mode, they would be found of little impor- 

 tance. A like comparison may be made with other branches of com- 

 merce, particularly the British West Indian, and the result will be 

 found the same. For the sake, then, of gaining pence and farthings, Brit- 

 ain is sacrificing pounds by her new regulations of trade. She has a 

 right to see for herself; but, unhappily, resentment aud the consequent 

 prejudices have so disordered her powers of vision, that it requires the 

 Bkilful hand of a good political optician to remove the obstructing films 



