THE BRITISH FISH TRADE. 59 



corn market. He buys fish for which there is no imme- 

 diate demand at the moment, and sells it again later on in 

 the day. A good many people think that the interposition 

 of the " bomaree " has the effect of further raising the price of 

 fish and that it is therefore injurious. The clamour which 

 Englishmen of another generation used to raise against the 

 " regrater " is raised now against the " bomaree." The 

 " bomaree," however, is really fulfilling a useful purpose. But 

 for his intervention many small retail tradesmen would be 

 forced to attend the market at an hour when their attendance 

 would be inconvenient to them. The " bomaree " enables the 

 small costermonger to postpone his visit to Billingsgate 

 till he has disposed of his purchases of the previous day. 

 Middlemen are never popular characters, yet the middle- 

 man, if his functions are examined, will generally be found 

 to supply a public want, and to fulfil a useful purpose. 



Such are some of the features in the trade of fish. An 

 army of 120,000 persons is employed in catching them ; 

 an army of 80,000 other persons probably find employ- 

 ment in curing them, or in other ways are dependent on 

 the fishermen ; and an army of 10,000 to 20,000 persons 

 is employed in selling them. 



There is a singular distinction between the tastes of 

 different parts of the community in respect to fish.* Some 

 of the fish which the English eat are disliked by the Scotch^ 

 while the Scotch in their turn eat some fish which are not 

 relished by the English. The Scotchman rarely eats a 

 mackerel, and never eats an eel. He carries his dislike of 



* The distaste of some nations for fish is remarkable. In the 12th 

 Book of the Odyssey, Ulysses' companions would not eat fish till they 

 were actually starving. Menelaus in the 4th Book says the same 

 thing of his own companions ; and Plutarch declares that " among, 

 the Syrians and Greeks to abstain from fish was esteemed a piece of 

 sanctity." 



