122 THE SEA FISHERIES 



That more adventurers embarked in the business in the later 

 years, when the bounties were regularly paid, cannot be denied ; 

 but it is incorrect to say that during the first fourteen years less 

 barrels were caught in proportion to the tonnage than in the last 

 period of similar duration. It is equally incorrect to say that the 

 fishermen " seemed only to go out and fish for the bounty instead 

 of herrings." 



At this time the cost of building and fitting out a buss of 60 tons 

 for the herring fishery would be about £957, and the tonnage bounty 

 at 30s. per ton on a vessel that size would be £90. Adam Smith 

 must have known very little about fishing for herring if he thought 

 a return of this kind would be sufficient of itself to induce people 

 to invest their capital in it. The expense of fitting out the vessel 

 in subsequent years would be £313, so that even after the first 

 year the tonnage bounty alone would be no inducement to per- 

 severe in the fisheries. In fact, the establishment of a successful 

 herring fishery was an extremely difficult matter, as the " Society 

 of the Free British Fishery " discovered. Established by the Act 

 of 1750 with a paid-up capital of over £100,000, with numerous 

 privileges and immunities, the Society, nevertheless, was dissolved 

 in 1772 with a loss of gal per cent of the original capital. 



Finally the Committee in their second report of 1800 seem to be 

 very doubtful about making any definite recommendations. They 

 recommend a further delay in the adoption of a definitive and 

 permanent system of regulation for the herring fisheries. They 

 urge that since an important measure of legislative union with the 

 Kingdom of Ireland was under consideration, it became their duty 

 to consider what effect " that great, and they trust most beneficial, 

 change " was likely to have on the herring fishery. At this time, 

 large bounties were given by the Legislature on the herrmg fishery 

 in Ireland (by the Acts of the Irish Parliament),^ and the Committee 

 were of opinion that the whole question of the improvement of the 

 herring' fisheries would early come up for consideration by the 

 legislature of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. 

 By a Committee of the House of Commons, in the year i8oi,« 

 the subject of the herring fisheries was again taken into consideration. 

 This Committee, considering the various difficulties and embarrass- 

 ments which arose from the restrictions and regulations necessary 

 for protecting the revenue arising from excise duties on salt, recom 

 mended that measures should be taken to abolish those duties 



1 An account of the bounty system in Ireland is given in Vol. X, " Reports of 



■■ A revfew of the domestic fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland, Edmburgh, 

 1818, p. go- 



