254 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY, 



" It was found that, although it might secure to the 

 purchaser that the article should not fall below a given 

 standard, it tended to prevent its rising above that stand- 

 ard ; that it discouraged the improvements of private en- 

 terprise, inasmuch as it promoted a uniform limit of price 

 which it was very difficult to pass by any difference in 

 quality. 



" These, and other similar objections, have been stated 

 in various forms by such of the fish-curers as have ex- 

 pressed themselves desirous that the system of brand- 

 ing herrings should be discontinued. These parties con- 

 cur in the representation that it places upon the same 

 level the careful and industrious curer, and the less care- 

 ful and less industrious, inasmuch as the price of branded 

 herrings at the same time and place is uniform, whoever 

 may be the curer, and whatever may be the pains and 

 care he bestows on the cure ; and this important point is 

 admitted by many of those who are favourable to the 

 branding system. 



" They further state, that the dealers who purchase at 

 the fishery stations make their bargains, in the first 

 instance, with those who cure their herrings not under 

 cover, but in the open air, which is not so good a process, 

 and who sell them at a cheap rate, and thus depress the 

 price of the better article. 



" They complain that whereas, in other kinds of busi- 

 ness, industry, skill, and honesty have their reward in in- 

 creased custom and better prices, this is not the case with 

 resjDCct to the exportation trade in cured herrings, owing 

 to the levelling effect of the ofiicial brand. 



" It is pointed out that, although the brand is by law 

 optional, and no one is compelled to obtain it, yet so long- 

 as a considerable number of the trade use it, it cannot be 



