406 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
FOREIGN CODFISH MARKETS. 
The world’s annual product of dried codfish now amounts to about 600,000,000 
pounds, cured weight, the equivalent of 2,500,000,000 pounds of round fish, obtained 
principally by the fishermen of Norway, Newfoundland, Canada, United States, and 
France. The chief markets are France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Brazil. In 1893 
France imported 94,218,948 pounds of codfish, valued at $4,949,037, without counting 
the large quantity cured by fishermen of that country. During the same year Spain 
imported 97,814,488 pounds, worth $4,795,278, and Portugal, 43,126,385 pounds, worth 
$1,789,560. The imports into southern Europe are principally from Norway and New- 
foundland; those into Brazil and other South American countries are largely from 
Newfoundland, and the West India trade is almost monopolized by shipments from 
Canada. While a steadily increasing export trade has been conducted by Norway, 
Newfoundland, and Canada, especially with the West Indies and Central and South 
America, the exports from the United States have very greatly decreased. 
A hundred years ago our exports of cod approximated 500,000 quintals annually, 
at an average value of $4.50 per quintal. In 1804 the exports were 567,825 quintals, 
worth $2,400, (‘00, the largest quantity ever exported from this country in any one 
year. The annual exports decreased to about 300,000 quintals during the ten years 
following the war of 1812, and since that time up to the present they have approx- 
imated about 130,000 quintals annually. The exports during the ttm years ending 
June 30, 1894, averaged 16,260,008 pounds, worth $737,084, annually, or 20 per cent of 
the total quantity cured. Over half of these were sent to Haiti, and much smaller 
quantities went to Cuba, Dutch and French Guianas, Colombia, Santo Domingo, 
Jamaica, and various other countries, and especially to ports in the West Indies and 
South America. 
It thus appears that at present this country has only a small slmre of the 
trade in the principal codfish markets. Brazil, for instance, consumes about 500,000 
quintals of fish annually, of which the United States supplies less than 2 per cent; 
and none whatever are sent from this country to the Catholic countries of southern 
Europe, the great fish-markets of the world. A century ago a large part of that trade 
was controlled by the United States, but since the domestic market will receive fish 
containing 50 per cent of moisture, while the Brazilian trade requires fish containing 
less than 25 per cent, greater profit has been found in supidying the home market, and 
nearly all the curers have contributed to that trade, resulting in a decrease in exports. 
CODFISH CURING IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
In the British North American Provinces the codfish are cured in nearly the 
same manner as on the New England coast, except that they are dried much more 
thoroughly, and in many instances they are not salted in butts, but are spread on the 
flakes immediately after removal from the kenches. Each morning they are spread 
ont, flesh side up, and at night they are gathered in piles of 15 or 20, with skin side 
up, and with the largest on top as a cover to the rest. If the sun becomes too hot 
during the middle of the day, they are turned with the flesh side down to prevent their 
being burned, but as soon as the great heat is over they are reexposed as before. 
When the fish are sufficiently dry, large piles are made, containing a ton or more, the 
whole being covered with birch bark and heavy stones, which serve to express much 
of the moisture then remaining. After compression for two or three weeks the fish are 
