54 BRITISH SEA-FISHERIES 



in 1901. We thus see that the people were steadily 

 increasing their expenditure on fish, viz., from 2s. gd. 

 per head in 1887 to 3s. id. in 1891, and to 4s. per head 

 in 1901. The quantity consumed amounted to 25 lb. 

 per head in 1887, 23-9 lb. in 1891, and 38-8 lb. in 

 1901. 



To appreciate the significance of these figures it is 

 necessary to bear in mind that, prior to 1891, the fish- 

 ing was mostly prosecuted in the North Sea and in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of our coasts. During 

 this period the price rose 20 per cent, and the supply 

 fell — facts which indicate with tolerable certainty that 

 the yield of the older fishing-grounds had reached its 

 limits, if it was not actually declining. But in the 

 following decade the conditions were reversed; the 

 supply increased 50 per cent., and the price fell 3d. 

 per cwt. This was the period of rapid increase in the 

 number of steam-trawlers, of the exploitation of new 

 fishing-grounds in distant waters, and of a great ex- 

 pansion of the herring-fishery. 



There was thus no question of a general scarcity of 

 fish. Fishing-boats were multiplying, and supplies 

 increasing by leaps and bounds. Between 1891 and 

 1901 the average annual catch of plaice rose from 

 677,000 cwt. to 959,000 cwt., that of cod from 367,000 

 to 748,000 cwt., and that of herrings from 1,400,000 to 

 2,800,000 cwt. In the absence of specific information 

 as to the yield of the older fishing -grounds, Parlia- 

 ment and the Government turned a deaf ear to the 

 fishermen's complaints. 



But in 1900 it was shown to the Parliamentary 

 Committee on the Sea Fisheries Bill of that year that, 

 during the past decade, characterized (as we have 

 seen) by a general fall in the price of fish, the price oi 

 plaice had risen 17 per cent., and that of other valuable 

 flat-fishes from 3 to 6 per cent. It was also shown 

 that, while the catching power had multiplied three- 



