220 
Part III. — Ninth Annual Report 
Mussels sold at Esnandes at 5 fr. per basket of 55 kilos., or about 
<£3, 14s. per ton. The price of Scottish bouchot mussels, calculated on 
the same scale, would be £10, 2s. per ton. Stated otherwise, if French 
mussels grown on a bouchot, material for which cost the price stated 
above, can be sold at £3, 14s. per ton, Scottish mussels, in order to yield 
the same proportionate sum on the corresponding expenditure, would 
require to sell at £10, 2s. per ton, a price which would place Scottish 
mussels entirely beyond the reach of the Scottish line-fisher ui en. 
Carrying the comparison still further, we may see if the profits, after 
due allowance for wages and expenses of upkeep, will in any way modify 
the above prices. At Esnandes I selected a typical case, particulars of which 
I obtained from one of the bouchot-owners resi(iing there. The expendi- 
ture on material for the erection of his bouchot was 2000 francs, and 
from this he derived a profit of 250 francs after setting aside 1200 francs 
for his year's labour and the maintenance of his bouchot. Stating this in 
British currency, the amount of capital is £80 ; wages, expenses for 
implements, renewals, &c., amount to £48 ; and the profit is £10. In 
other words, the profits are 12 J per cent., or, reckoning profits and wages 
and expenditure together, the French houclideur derives an income of 
22s. 4d. per week. This amount of weekly earnings requires to cover 
not only the wages of the houcheleui\ who is himself proprietor and work- 
man, but also the interest on capital of £80, viz., £4, and the tear and 
wear of acow, originally costing £2, and the repairs to posts and wattles, 
which the bouchot is cqntinually needing; the necessary repairs I set 
down at 12 J per cent, of capital, viz., £10. This sum is sufficient to 
satisfy the houcheleur, and he reckons it a fair income. 
Applying the same calculation to a bouchot of the same size erected in 
Scotland, what costs the French houcheleur £80 will cost for material the 
Scottish fisherman £240. The annual interest on this at 5 per cent, will 
amount therefore to £12, which falls to be deducted from the revenue 
derived from the sale of mussels grown on the bouchot, and a further 
deduction of 12| per cent, on the capital expenditure, viz., £30, requires 
also to be made. Before, therefore, any income is derivable from a 
Scottish bouchot costing £240, a deduction for interest and u[)keep of 
£42 requires to be made from the gross revenue. 
Supposing a Scottish bouchot was as successful in producing mussels 
in quantity as is a French bouchot, and that mussels sold in Scotland at 
£3, 14s. per ton, as in France, the Scottish bouchot costing £240 would 
produce £58 worth of mussels. Deducting interest and cost of mainten- 
ance (£42) from this gross revenue, then the clear yearly revenue from 
the Scottish bouchot would be £16, or 6s. 6d. per week — a weekly wage 
for tending the bouchot which would hardly satisfy even a Scottish fisher- 
man, small as are his present weekly earnings. If the weekly wages 
of a Scottish fishermen were 20s., then the gross revenue from his 
bouchdt would require to amount to £94, always supposing that his 
bouchot would produce a quantity of mussels equal to that produced on 
a bouchot at Aiguillon. This would necessitate him selling his mussels 
at £5, 19s. 9d. per ton. If, on the other hand, the Scottish bouchot 
yielded the same quantity of mussels as the French, and the mussels sold 
at £2 per ton, which is about the maximum sum a fisherman might be 
expected to pay for mussels, then the net revenue from the Scottish 
bouchot would be £31, 8s., or £10, 12s. less than the sum which would 
require to be laid aside each year for interest and maintenance of the 
bouchot. The direct loss to the fisherman would therefore be £10, 12s., 
and that, too, while the fisherman received nothing in the shape of wages. 
If the Scottish bouchot were to yield the same amount of free revenue as 
