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Appendices to Thirty -seventh Annual Report 



of the twelfth century (reign of David I.) and the fishing went on 

 practically unchanged down to the beginning of last century. The 

 curing, export, and sale of the fish was in the hands of the Royal 

 Burghs, and the privileges were jealously guarded. A not inconsider- 

 able part of the revenues of the Crown was for a long time derived 

 from the export duties on fish ; Aberdeen pickled and dried cod and 

 pickled salmon were known all over Western Europe — the name 

 " Aberdeens " (haberdines, aberdines, etc.), as applied to dried cod fish, 

 being well known in all markets and being still used on the Continent. 



Apart from trawling, the methods of fishing pursued have all 

 along been practically the same as at the present time, viz., long and 

 small lines, and drift and trammel nets. 



The value of the fisheries, even in the middle of the seventeenth 

 century, was such that it certainly required some temerity on the 

 part of a French gentleman, Hugues L'Amey, to propose to the Scots 

 Parliament that in return for introducing and supervising the growing 

 of Indian corn in Scotland he should receive a grant of the whole of 

 the Scottish Fisheries ! About the middle of the eighteenth century a 

 serious effort was made to establish a deep-sea herring fishery on the 

 Dutch plan, large vessels called " busses " being built — on board of 

 which the fish were pickled and barrelled. The effort failed com- 

 pletely. It was based on an imperfect bounty system and (as Adam 

 Smith said) the boats were often fitted out to catch the bounty and 

 not the fish. In 1808, however, the Commissioners of the British 

 White Herring Fishery, who had jurisdiction over the United Kingdom, 

 were appointed, and a new system of bounties was instituted having 

 as its object the improving of the quality of the cure of herrings, cod 

 and ling ; and as a result of the efficient and close supervision of the 

 fishery officers appointed, the fisheries developed so rapidly that it 

 was found possible in 1830 to dispense with the bounties. The marks 

 placed on the barrels of herrings reaching the requisite standard and 

 on the fish themselves in the case of cod and ling had acquired so 

 much value in the eyes of the foreign dealers as an indication of good 

 quality that the curers petitioned the Government to retain them in 

 the form of a Crown brand. A proposal to abolish the brand in 1849 

 met with so much opposition from the trade (who were now prepared 

 to pay a fee to meet the cost of administration) that the Government 

 consented to its continuance, and the herring brand survives to this 

 day as the only official imprimatur of the quality of goods exported 

 from this country. 



During the course of the last hundred years the industry passed 

 through many phases and vicissitudes. Apart from administrative 

 measures the industry has been dependent for development on three 

 main factors or conditions : — (1) Preservation, chiefly for export — a 

 factor paramount in earlier times ; (2) the provision of transport 

 facilities for carrying fish to the markets in a fresh state ; and (3) a 

 combination of conditions involving improved means of propulsion 

 of boats, extension of harbours, and better facilities for distribution 

 in the inland centres. 



In Scotland, till well on into the last century, fresh fish was a 

 luxury ; it was available only in the neighbourhood of the fishing 

 ports by the help of such media as " Maggie Mucklebackit 99 and the 

 Newhaven fishwives, and further afield by means of horses. Owing 



