56 FRENCH FISH COMMERCE. 



intermediate transactions, until they reach the hands of the fish- 

 monger of Paris. The first agent into whose hands they come 

 is the ecmeur. The ecareur is usually a qualified man appointed 

 by the owners of the vessels, the municipality, or by an associa- 

 tion termed the SociUi d'Ecorage. He performs the functions of 

 a wholesale agent between the fishermen and the public. He 

 is ready to take the fish out of the fisherman's hands as soon as 

 they are landed. He buys the fish from the fisherman, and 

 pays him at once, deducting a percentage for his own services. / 

 This percentage is sometimes 5, 4, or even as low as 3^ pe^ 

 cent. He undertakes the whde risk of selling the fish, and 

 suffers any loss that may be incurred by bad debts or bad sale, 

 for which he can make no claim whatever upon the owner of 

 the boat. The system of ecorage is universally adopted, as the 

 fisherman prefers ready money with a deduction of 5 per cent 

 rather than trouble himself with any repayment or run the risk 

 of bad debts. Passing from the ecoreur we come to the mareijeur 

 — that is, the merchant who buys the fish from the wholesale 

 agent. He provides baskets to hold the fish, packs them, and 

 despatches them by raUway. He pays the carriage, the town- 

 dues or duties, and the fees to the market-crier. Should the 

 fish not keep, and arrive in Paris in bad condition, and be com- 

 plained of by the police, he sustains the loss. As regards the 

 transport arrangements, the fish are usually forwarded by the 

 fast trains, and the rates are invariable, whatever may be the 

 quality of the fish. Thus, turbot and salmon are carried at the 

 same rate as monk fish, oysters, and crabs. On the northern lines 

 the rate is 37 cents per ton per kilometre ; upon the Dieppe and 

 Nantes lines, 25 or 26 cents ; which gives 85 or 96 francs as 

 the carriage of a ton of fish despatched from the principal ports 

 of the north — such as St. Valery-sur-Somme, Boulogne, Calais, 

 and Dunkerque — and 130 francs per ton on fish despatched 

 from Nantes. 



The fish, on their arrival in Paris, are subjected to a duty^ 

 For the collection of this duty the fish are divided into two 

 classes — viz. fine fresh fish and ordinary fresh iish. The fine 

 fish — which class includes salmon, trout, turbot, sturgeon, 

 tunny, brill, shad, mullet, roach, sole, lobster, shrimp, and 

 oyster — pay a duty_of 10 per cent of the market value. The 

 duty upon the common fresh fish is 5 per cent. This duty is 

 paid after the sale, and is then of course duly entered in the 

 official register. 



