THE BRITISH FISH TRADE. 31 



obtaining a certain reputation for his own fish, it is not just 

 that he should be deprived of the advantage which he is 

 entitled to derive from the pains which he has taken, or 

 that he should be placed on a level with other and less 

 successful men. Protection to the small curer may too 

 often mean protection to the less energetic tradesman. 



But there is another and a graver objection to the 

 continuance of the brand. Any government guarantee 

 necessarily implies conformity with certain prescribed con- 

 ditions. The brand has, therefore, the effect of stereotyping 

 the trade and preventing improvement. The herrings must 

 be packed in specified barrels, made in one particular way ; 

 they must be cured in a prescribed manner and mixed with 

 a given proportion of salt. If an intelligent curer ventures 

 to think that he can improve the process, he must do so at 

 the certain risk of losing the brand, and so of lowering the 

 value of his fish. If even, as happened in the great fishing 

 of 1880, the stock of available barrels is exhausted, the 

 curers are unable to supplement the deficiency by using 

 Norwegian barrels, since their use would not entitle them to 

 the brand. Everything, in fact, must be done by rule ; 

 every departure from regulation must be followed by a 

 pecuniary loss to the curer, and the trade, in consequence, 

 is carried on, year after year, in the same unvarying manner, 

 with a Conservative aversion from change, which would 

 be worthy of the Chinese Empire. 



Nor is there any reason for assuming that the trade 

 would, in any sense, suffer from the abolition of the brand. 

 In the first place there is no brand on the west coast of 

 Scotland ; and there is a large trade between the west 

 coast of Scotland and the Continent in " matties," * or 

 young herrings cured. In the next place, the brand does 



* Mattie is a Dutch word ; it signifies, literally, maiden. 



