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This book is a challenge to the imagination and insight of the reader. It is not too much to say that for most of us it extends the frontiers of North America over a vast area that we have never thought of before as constituting a part—and a fundamental part—of the continent. A thousand miles of misty sea, yielding a harvest which for a long time rivalled in importance the produce of our opening wildernesses, it evoked the courage and daring of competing nations as did the conquest of the mainland. Its history reflects, as Professor Innis points out, the changing economies of Europe during the rise and growth of capitalism. Even today, although its importance has been relatively lessened by the rise of industry and the vast extension of the exploration of the landed surface of the globe, it remains a world of its own in international economy, one in which the interplay of American, Canadian and European interests has created a situation unique in history.

In exploring this great field, Professor Innis has opened up many a rich chapter of half forgotten history. Portuguese, Basque, Gascon, Breton, Norman and English sailors of the “West Country” sold their shiploads of cod in the markets of Europe for money reckoned in all the varied coin that was then beginning to transform the economy of Europe because of the gold and silver brought from America in Spanish galleons. The cod fisheries thus shared with the fur trade and that of Asia in widening the circle of European imports. This half obliterated history has been traced in the logbooks of sea captains and the account books of the merchants. It is possible that some impatient readers will not linger over these crabbed and confusing documents even to the limited extent that this volume brings them again to life. But for some there will be still that full suggestion of romance in trade which must have been felt by those who stood on the wharfs of St. Jean de Luz or St. Malo to watch the home fleet return from the Grand Banks.

The narrative begins with this chapter of European history; but almost from the beginning the theme lay along the fringe of that New World story which deals with the relations of neighboring colonies. The heart of Professor Innis’ study, however, is the description of more recent times, when the cod fisheries passed, for a great part, into the hands of the seamen of New England and Nova Scotia, and became a matter of international concern between the two countries. The fishery disputes which arose in this American setting have been treated elsewhere in detail in their political and juridical aspects; here they are viewed in the more real sense of economic interests, of changing methods of fishing, changing markets, and, above all, of the economic prosperity of those most directly concerned. Like the fishermen in whose schooners he sailed and with whom he consorted, the author keeps his eye on the fish.

It is for this reason that the volume occupies a place of its own in this series. International relations are too frequently depicted as but the political relationship between governments, the register of policies already arrived at; here we see the springs of thought and action. It is the only method of approach to the problems of today which reaches behind the façade to an understanding of disagreements or an appreciation of concessions in compromises. Moreover, the setting of this aspect of Canadian-American relations in the wider perspectives of history offers the basis of a sounder judgment of local issues.

In this way it is a contribution, and a real one, to fulfilment of the purposes of the present series. Research is not here denatured by practical exigencies; it is kept at its own task of discovering the hidden or little understood ways of men and nations. The results are a challenge—and a guide—to intelligence.

James T. Shotwell

In a region with the extensive waterways which characterize the northern part of North America economic development is powerfully directed toward concentration on staples for export to more highly industrialized regions. It is not too much to say that European civilization left its impress on North America through its demand for staple products and that these in turn affected the success of empires projected from Europe. The author’s study of the fur trade is therefore followed by a study of the fishing industry in the hope that it will throw light on the significance of that industry for the economic, political, and social organization of North America and Europe.

The task of indicating the significance of the fishing industry has been difficult, particularly for an Upper Canadian familiar with the centralizing tendencies of the St. Lawrence, which are so strikingly apparent to a student of the fur trade and the Canadian Pacific Railway. The psychological barrier incidental to a sustained interest in the St. Lawrence proved a handicap to an interest in the fishing industry and its regions. I have attempted to overcome it during the past decade by visiting a substantial portion of the regions devoted to the industry. As a member of the Royal Commission of Economic Enquiry in 1934, I have had exceptional opportunities to study Nova Scotia. Former students, especially Mrs. R. F. Grant and Dr. S. A. Saunders, have contributed valuable studies on the Canadian Maritimes. I must beg the indulgence of the residents of the Maritimes if in spite of these efforts I have not succeeded in overcoming the handicaps and in contributing to an appreciation of the necessity of tolerance in approaching the complex difficulties which accompany the divergent points of view in the Dominion.

The student of the fishing industry becomes aware of its peculiarities from the character of his source material. Its position in the mercantile system ensured it a prominent place in the documents of governments of Europe and North America. These documents are essentially instruments of offense and defense and their limitations are inevitable. For example, the profits and production figures of the industry of any nation if presented by an opponent tend to be exaggerated, and if presented by the nation itself tend to be minimized. Similarly, within a nation, interests present exaggerated accounts of the effects of policies which they favor or oppose. The “bearishness” of traders which was peculiar to the fishery increased the difficulty of securing a balanced picture. I have not attempted nor is it possible to arrive at an accurate appraisal, and the reader should in each case note the source of the information in order to allow a discount or premium. I have made generous use of citations in the hope that they may be of assistance. The enormous wealth of diplomatic material is in sharp contrast with the paucity of accurate detailed information upon technique and personnel. The illiteracy of the fisherman is the reverse side of the literacy of the diplomat. The fisherman is intensely individualistic and suspicious. The names of fishing localities are revealing in their variations and have defied the efforts of geographers and philologists.

The conflict of diplomatic documents exemplifies the intensity of the struggle between mercantile systems and empires, and the struggle within mercantile systems. The documents were concerned with the fishery as contributing to naval defense and show what encouragement was given to the industry by the state. Such encouragement brought increase in ships, in food, in trade, and especially in specie. It was an industry which strengthened the state directly and indirectly. In the fishery, the business of national defense was inherent in its development, in contrast with the fur trade where national defense could find a place only at the expense of the development of fur trading. The encouragement of the fishery as one part of navigation policy gave the Atlantic maritime regime of the New World a crucial position in the struggle between the mercantile systems of Europe. The effectiveness of the English mercantile system was a measure of the encouragement given the fishery. France was gradually pushed into poorer areas and forced to rely to an increasing extent on government support. The expansion of the fishery in Newfoundland and New England involved a growth of shipping, exports of manufactured products from England, exports of dried fish to tropical regions, and imports of salt, wine, or commodities of relatively higher bulk and lower value than fish, and consequently specie. The lack of balance between the bulk and value of exported cargoes and the bulk and value of the cargoes imported but added force to the demands of mercantile states for specie. The industrial arts gave their support to commercialism and mercantile policy. Valuable products such as tobacco and sugar were placed in a monopoly position within the system in order that a cheap, bulky commodity such as salt, and, then specie, might be purchased from without. The concentration on monopoly and the help given to the fishing industry, which was essentially competitive, intensified contradictions which broke the English mercantile system. The storm of the American Revolution was followed by rumblings which marked the collapse of the colonial system. This study attempts therefore to add to the significant studies of mercantilism by Professors Heckscher and Viner.

The problem of markets is a phase of the collapse of empires. The breakup of the Spanish and the Portuguese empires, so closely identified with feudalism and land, which followed the breakup of empires so identified with trade, such as the earlier empires of Holland and England, and, to a lesser degree, that of France, has been succeeded by a slow adjustment of the resulting independent states to the demands of an international economy. The financial weakness of Brazil has been accompanied by the corporatism of Portugal, Spain, and Italy. The corporatism of these regions has made necessary corporatism in Newfoundland and government intervention in Canada.

The Maritimes were divided into separate economies centering around the fishing industry and based on subordinate developments such as agriculture. Wheat was the basis for independent growth as became evident in the difficulties of the French Empire, in the success of the American colonies and eventually of Nova Scotia in Confederation. The extreme sensitiveness of the industry shown in the mobility of personnel and capital and the wide range of markets involved a quickening of independent growth evident in tariffs and bounties, which went hand in hand with improved technique. Tariffs and bounties in New England and France accompanied restrictions and the exclusion of American trade in Newfoundland and the West Indies. The emergence of customs regulations in Newfoundland, the checking of the migration of labor and commercial capital, and the growth of population were followed by problems of debt and the rise of private property, courts, and institutions of government, and the disappearance of the English fishing ships. Nova Scotia, engaged in strenuous competition with New England and Newfoundland, attempted to check American trade in the West Indies, to secure revisions of the colonial system, and to drive American ships from British waters. While the fishing industry of New England and France was recovering after the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, settlements expanded in Newfoundland and found more extensive markets and the support of the British Atlantic Maritimes. The position of the sugar interests in the British West Indies was weakened by the demands made by Newfoundland on Nova Scotia, and by the insistence of Nova Scotia on the exclusion of the United States. The admission of the United States to the British West Indian market after 1830 made it easier for the British Atlantic Maritimes to be of help to Newfoundland.

The complexity of the problems of competition has been indicated rather than adequately explained. The same complexity made the old colonial system impossible and hastened the coming of responsible government as an escape from it. The steamship and the ironclad war vessel struck at the heart of the assistance provided by the navigation policy. Under responsible government and without the protection of empires each region pursued, more aggressively, policies of expansion and protection and engaged in a battle of tariffs, bounties, embargoes, exclusion, transportation improvements, and new techniques. With the mobility of population and ships, the ultimate success of these devices was registered in migration, and the failures in the accumulation of debt.

The cycles of disturbance which went with the effective penetration of commercialism supported by the mercantile policy of empires in the first instance and, later, of small isolated regions under responsible government have ended with the spread of industrialism and, in Newfoundland, the loss of responsible government. The strength of commercial interests in New England led to the early development of commercialism in Nova Scotia, and their strength in England to the late development in Newfoundland. The delay that was made longer by limited resources and the late development of shipbuilding was followed by a more rapid development of responsible government and the vigorous measures which accompanied it. These measures promoted the introduction of large-scale methods of production among rivals such as France. A way out opened with the development of new resources and new markets. For example, restrictions on the export to France of herring for bait were accompanied by increased trade with Canada and the United States. But large-scale methods spread to Newfoundland and increased the complexity of her problems. Her soft-cure product competed with the hard-cure produced by her skilled labor. The dominance of commercialism weakened the power of the state to moderate the severities arising from the spread of industrialism. It was unable to meet the problems of competition which followed industrialism in the shape of the steamship, the railway, and the gasoline engine. The last days of responsible government were supported by loans from an oil company. Commercialism was too active to permit responsible government to intrench itself deeply enough to save itself from destruction. The struggle of short-term credit against long-term ended with the spread of industrialism. Capitalism represented by the intervention of governments has softened the acerbities of commercialism. But the absence of machinery to effect an adjustment of commercialism to capitalism can never serve as an excuse for destroying the contribution by commercialism to responsible government.

Flexibility has decreased, and the migration of labor has been checked by quotas and restrictions. The importance of the flow of capital funds has been accentuated in the improved capital equipment of the fishing regions. Trawlers have been introduced on a large scale. American capital has contributed to the development of the fresh-fish industry in the Canadian Maritimes. It will possibly contribute, with British capital, to its development in Newfoundland as the latter has assisted Iceland. The rate of adjustment has varied widely. Adaptability of capital equipment and capitalistic organization to the technique of the industry in relation to products, markets, and geographic background has been least conspicuous in Newfoundland. Government support given to an intensive commercialism exposed the region to the full impact of capitalism. The decline of bankruptcy as a method of adjustment brought the collapse of responsible government. It was significant that a banker occupied a prominent position on the Royal Commission which recommended its abolition.

When Newfoundland’s dictatorship as a whole refused to accept the highly questionable policy of one of its members, Mr. Thomas Lodge, he argued that “to have assumed responsibility for the good government of Newfoundland from altruistic motives and to have achieved economic rehabilitation might have cost the British taxpayer a few millions. It would [however] have added to the prestige of the British Empire.” But that will not do. For those who believe in democracy the prestige of the British Empire must have suffered a blow with the destruction of its fundamental basis in the oldest colony. We cannot base our argument on the importance of the British Empire to the maintenance of democracy when we calmly allow the light to go out in Newfoundland. It is the hope of the author that this volume may contribute in its own way to a solution of the problems of the region by fostering that coöperation among its component parts which has emerged with industrialism, and by tempering the bitterness which has marred the history of the industry.

Economic history is complementary to political history; but its sources are more discursive and demand a knowledge of a wide range of information not found in the documents of state and church. I am therefore indebted to many people for assistance at numerous points. In Nova Scotia, I am indebted to the Honorable Angus L. Macdonald, the late G. Fred Pearson, Mr. W. C. Ackers, Messrs. Ralph and Winthrop Bell, Mr. H. V. D. Laing, Mr. O. F. Mackenzie, the Reverend Dr. J. J. Tompkins, the Reverend Dr. M. M. Coady, Mr. A. B. Macdonald, Mr. A. H. Whitman, to Professor D. C. Harvey of the Nova Scotia Archives and to his staff; in Newfoundland to Mr. W. A. Munn, Mr. J. T. Cheeseman, Mr. C. Crosbie, Mr. Henry King, Mr. George Hawes, Mr. C. Carter, Mr. Arthur Edgecombe, Mr. John Butler, and Dr. Nigel Rusted; and throughout the whole region devoted to the industry, to many others. In the University of Toronto, Mr. W. S. Wallace as librarian, Dr. A. G. Huntsman, Professor G. A. Cornish, Professor D. G. Creighton, and Mr. R. A. Preston, and in Queen’s University, Professor G. S. Graham have generously met demands made upon them. In Ottawa I have had more than kindness from Mr. Gustave Lanctot, Dominion Archivist, and his staff, and particularly Mr. James Kenney; from Mr. W. A. Found of the Department of Fisheries and his staff; from Mr. R. H. Coats, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, and Mr. F. A. Harvey of the Parliamentary Library. I am grateful to Professor I. M. Biss, Professor J. B. Brebner, and Mr. R. H. Fleming, who read the entire manuscript, and to Professor C. R. Fay, who read the earlier part, all alike with much advantage to me. Mr. R. H. Fleming at much personal sacrifice accompanied me on trips along the North Shore of the St. Lawrence, through the Gaspé Peninsula, and from St. John’s to the Labrador. In the extremely tedious task of preparing the manuscript for the press I have been greatly assisted by Miss I. C. Hill. Without the exact and extensive work of Mr. A. E. McFarlane, who edited the text for the Carnegie Endowment, it could not have been printed. I am indebted to him for the Appendix to Chapter II. And, as editor of the economic volumes in this series and particularly as author of this book, I have been under obligations deeper than words can express to Professor James T. Shotwell.

H. A. I.

The history of the northeastern maritime region of North America has been dominated by the fishing industry, but it is significant that the cod (Gadus callarias Linnaeus), the staple fish, has secured recognition only grudgingly as the basis of economic development. Massachusetts has paid tribute to its key position; but Newfoundland and Nova Scotia have shown neglect. Whereas in Canada the beaver was fittingly chosen as a symbol of unity, in Newfoundland the cod was largely responsible for disunity, and its lack of recognition is a result.

An interpretation of its significance in the economic history of the area depends on an understanding of its geographical background and habits. The cod-fishing industry is primarily concerned with coastal waters and with the submerged continental shelf ^[1] which adjoins the northeastern portion of the North American continent and corresponds to the coastal plain south of New York. The increasing submergence of the continent toward the northeast is registered in the increasing width of the shelf and “the progressive deepening of its outer margin in the same direction.” Submergence within recent geological times to a depth of probably 1,200 feet in the Gulf of Maine has left outlying “cuestas” as relatively shallow areas which are the Banks on which the cod fishery has been prosecuted. Remaining above the sea are the peninsula of Nova Scotia, various islands of the Gulf, and the Island of Newfoundland. ^[2] The weaker rocks of the Triassic period were responsible for the long inlet in the Bay of Fundy, and those of the Carboniferous period for the phenomenon which has necessitated the mining of Cape Breton coal under the sea. The more resistant rocks of the older formations, their location, and their relatively small area have restricted the economic activities of the land. These limitations have combined with a cooler climate and the increasing width of the submerged plain toward the northeast to give growing importance to the fishing industry. While New England, with a more favorable climate and an extensive hinterland, became less dependent on the fishing industry, Newfoundland grew increasingly dependent on it. But throughout the whole area the exploitation of the fisheries has been of dominant importance. No other industry has engaged the activities of any people in North America over such a long period of time and in such restricted areas. In contrast with the fur trade, with its dependence on natural resources subject to constant depletion and on the cultural adjustments of the native population, the fishing industry has been carried on in selected areas, with continuous supply, ^[3] and by the labor of Europeans. Trade provided a contrast to industry.

The great wealth and complex interdependence of animal life along the seaboard of the Maritimes have as yet baffled the scientist, and only small areas which have yielded to economic exploitation have come under the range of intensive investigation. The Banks are subjected primarily to ocean phenomena, and are not influenced by rivers from Newfoundland or by fresh water from the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current, ^[4] a variety of conditions of temperature and climate, and a food supply varying from plankton to the larger fish in the vicinity of the Grand Banks are responsible for the abundance and diversity of the animal life which supports the extensive but fluctuating cod fishery. “In Newfoundland as nowhere else can one be made to feel the contrast between a land that is infinitely silent, motionless, poor in vegetation, above all poor in its variety of living creatures, and a sea which harbors every form of life.” ^[5]

The cod prefers a salinity of 34 per thousand and a temperature of 40° to 50°, but its range is far beyond these limits. It frequents chiefly rocky, pebbly, sandy, or gravelly grounds ^[6] in general from 20 to 70 fathoms in depth, although it has been taken at 250 fathoms and thrives in temperatures as low as 34°. The cod usually spawns in water less than 30 fathoms deep and apparently in fairly restricted areas. A female 40 inches long will produce 3,000,000 eggs, and it has been estimated that a 52-inch fish weighing 51 pounds would produce nearly 9,000,000. The eggs float in the upper layers of water, where they are fertilized and hatched. They have a specific gravity of 1.024 with the result that the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with its larger proportion of fresh water, has proved less satisfactory as a spawning ground, and Conception Bay less so than Trinity Bay, Placentia, and the Western Banks. Experiments have shown that a temperature of 47° will lead to hatching in 10 or 11 days, of 43° in 14 or 15 days, of 38° to 39° in 20 to 23 days, and of 32° in 40 days or more. Warmer water, say from 41° to 47°, tends to favor a more rapid development of the fish and more successful reproduction. The cod spawns usually in winter in the Gulf of Maine and at a later date toward the north. On the Grand Banks and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence it spawns chiefly in summer. ^[7] The temperature of the water at the surface in Labrador in summer varies from 40° to 45°, but drops rapidly to 32° at five to seven fathoms.

The larvae of the cod feed chiefly on plankton found near the surface of the water. Probably at the age of two months the young fry take to the bottom where they feed on various small crustaceans, and as they increase in size become ground feeders and consume “invertebrates in great variety and enormous amount.” The adult fish is distinguished by its three dorsal and two anal fins, its lack of spines, the location of the ventral fins well forward of the pectorals, the protrusion of the upper jaw beyond the lower, the nearly square tail, and a pale lateral line. ^[8] It has a heavy body and a head about one fourth the length of the fish, and both head and body are covered with small scales. In color, the cod falls into two main groups, gray and red, both ranging through a wide scale. The upper part of the trunk, the sides of the head, and the fins and tail are generally thickly speckled with small, round, vaguely edged spots.

In the Gulf of Maine ^[9] shore cod weighing 5 to 20 pounds have been estimated to be from three to six years old. It is claimed that the bank cod are large and mature at four years, while the shore cod of Newfoundland are small but mature at two or three. The fish varies greatly in size. One caught off the Massachusetts coast in May, 1895, on a line trawl was over six feet in length and weighed 211 pounds. A fish which dressed 138 pounds, and probably weighed 180 when alive, was caught on Georges Bank in 1838; and various weights from 100 to 160 pounds have been recorded. In the Gulf of Maine the average “large” fish caught near shore weighs about 35 pounds, and those on the Bank about 25. “Shore fish” in Newfoundland waters average 10 to 12 pounds. ^[10] In the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the east coast of Labrador, the fish are of smaller average size, while those to the north of Labrador are shorter and thinner than those taken at the Straits of Belle Isle. Grenfell gives as the largest fish caught on the Labrador coast one that weighed 102 pounds and was five feet six inches long. According to him, “The average Labrador cod taken in the trap-net is about twenty inches long and weighs between three and four pounds. Those caught with hook and line in the autumn are much larger and heavier.” ^[11] Throughout the general range along the Atlantic coast from New York and New Jersey, but particularly from the Nantucket shoals to northern Labrador, the weight tends to grow less as one goes north.

Mollusks are regarded as the largest item in the diet of the cod in the Gulf of Maine. ^[12] To the north, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Newfoundland and the Labrador, herring, capelin, and squid are important food items. The herring is said to be extremely sensitive to temperature changes. It winters at the bottom of bays free of ice, and appears on the southwest coast in March. The capelin ^[13] is a small subarctic species of fish which spawns in multitudes along the shore and is pursued by large numbers of cod. It appears on the southern coasts in June and on more northerly coasts later in the season. Its movements are uncertain but it serves as one of the important links between the smaller species of ocean life and the larger species including the cod. The squid appear late in the summer season.

On the fringes of its optimum range the cod follows pronounced seasonal migrations. During winter and spring ^[14] sea life withdraws to deep waters, but with the retreat of the ice the cod follows the capelin and comes to spawn from May to September in the gulfs and fiords and in the shallower layer of water which covers the Banks. The migrations take place, in a way, “both vertically and horizontally.” At Cape Bauld in northern Newfoundland the fishing ^[15] lasts from about June 20 to October 20, or more than 100 days. From Chateau Bay north to Batteau it begins between June 20 and July 12 and lasts until October 1, or from 80 to 102 days. From Batteau to Okkak it begins between July 12 and July 28 and lasts until October 1, or from 65 to 80 days; and at Hebron it lasts from about August 15 to September 15, or some 32 days. The season varies from year to year. The smaller fish are said to leave first and to be followed by the larger ones in November. Comparatively little is known as to the character of their migrations; but cod with French hooks from the Grand Banks have been caught on the Labrador and in Ipswich Bay, Massachusetts. They apparently follow the temperature lines between warm and cold currents; and the extensive distribution of the polar current in 1927 has been held responsible for the bad fishery of that year.

The Fishing Banks from Cape Cod to Labrador

The long and continuous exploitation of the cod fishery has been in part a result of the cod’s wide range, and in part because it is “different from other fishes like the salmon and herring; its flesh is rich and gelatinous without being fatty, and readily lends itself to a simple and efficient cure by salting and being dried in the sun.” ^[16] As a protein commodity it has been called “the beef of the sea.” The fishery was dependent, therefore, not only on the location of the fishing areas but also on factors which affected the technique of handling and of marketing the product. Ice conditions and wind direction became important in the routes of sailing vessels, and hours of sunshine and proximity to land determined the various methods of drying and the necessity of “salting down green.” The Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current which produce diverse temperatures near Newfoundland are held responsible for the continual diversity ^[17] of the climate. The Gulf Stream, as le père des vents (the father of winds), although moderating the climate of Europe, produces off Newfoundland contrasts like those of the Sahara or Thibet. But storms are rarer and less violent from May to October than from November to April. Newfoundland has no dominant winds and there are in all seasons “differentiating factors which, in the entire coast line of the North Atlantic, are unique in their power to create moisture and to change temperatures.” The climate is both maritime and continental. The air currents are almost never rectilinear but constantly cyclonic or anticyclonic. Temperature fluctuates continually as a result of changes in the wind and other local factors. Fogs are formed by the condensation of humid air from the Gulf Stream when passing over the cold water of the Labrador coast, and of warm, humid winds blowing overland, with the result that the Straits of Belle Isle have even more fog than the south of Newfoundland. Fogs blowing toward the middle of the island tend to lose moisture; and the majority of fogs have relatively low humidity and are easily dispersed by evaporating winds. “Newfoundland is, above all, the country where fog does not wet one.” ^[18] The contrast between the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current contributes to the greater frequency of fogs in the region between the State of Maine and Nova Scotia, and in the neighborhood of the Grand Banks. Fog apparently covers greater areas on the Grand Banks between April and August than between September and March, but the changing positions of the currents render the boundaries of such fog areas uncertain. The Avalon Peninsula, especially in the neighborhood of Cape Race, and Petit Nord in the neighborhood of Belle Isle are shown in the meteorological reports to be the regions most susceptible to fogs, and the middle of the island, especially about Notre Dame Bay, to be the least susceptible. Indian summer, from about September 15 to November 15, is characterized by a minimum of fog. Rainfall tends to have little relation to fog and may be heaviest in January, April, or July at St. John’s.

As a result of these factors the fishery varies in time and technique. In the southern area the fishing grounds of the New England shore are found at about twelve or fifteen miles from the coast. ^[19] In the Gulf of Maine there are several small banks at a great distance from it. Beyond these banks are the large banks ^[20] beginning with Georges and extending northeast to the Grand Banks. Fish are caught on parts of Georges Bank in large numbers during late winter, or from February to April. Northeast and south of Cape Sable is Brown’s Bank, and near it are the Seal Island grounds, Roseway Bank, and La Have Bank. Still farther northeast are Sable Island Bank, Banquereau, Misaine Bank, and Canso Bank. These are tributary to New England and Nova Scotia, and are separated by a deep channel from the Bank of St. Pierre, Green Bank, and the Grand Banks. The last have an area of 37,000 square miles, and cod are found especially on the southern half. Fishing begins in the south in April and, throughout the season, or to October, keeps moving northward. Near the shore, in the Bay of Fundy and along the Nova Scotia coast, cod are found only in small numbers. They are plentiful on the Cape North ground, at the northern end of Cape Breton, especially in May and June. Near the Magdalen Islands, at Bradelle Bank and Orphan Bank, near the New Brunswick coast at Miscou, and at Gaspé, cod fishing is important in the summer months. On the east and west coasts of Newfoundland and “on the Labrador,” fishing is mostly confined to the areas near shore. On the east coast the fishing is carried on from the middle of June to about the first of November.

The fishing industry developed around the cod. ^[21] As one of the most prolific and most adaptable of the Gadus family, it extends over the widest range, from northern Labrador to New England and even farther south. The most favorable conditions for its development are apparently found in the area from Cape Race to Cape Cod which includes the winter fishery in the Gulf of Maine, the bank fishery, and a large coastal fishery. To the north, seasonal variations have more importance and spawning is more largely confined to the summer months. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador the fish are smaller in size, the seasons are more closely restricted, the cod feeds largely on the capelin, and the shore fishery becomes more important. The curing of dry fish ^[22] has been more directly related to the northern part, particularly the coastal areas of central Newfoundland and small areas such as Gaspé, ^[23] and the green fishery has been confined for the most part to the more southern portions of the whole area, especially the Banks. The cool drying season of the winter months facilitated the development of the winter fishery in New England, but ice conditions in Newfoundland and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence restricted activity to the summer. The relatively smaller size of fish along the eastern shore of Newfoundland limits the demands for salt essential to a summer cure.

In the areas such as the Banks, with the cod larger and more distant from land, European countries like France, which possessed cheap supplies of solar salt, had striking advantages; in areas with relatively abundant sunshine, and cod smaller and nearer land, countries like England, even without cheap supplies of solar salt, were at a greater advantage. But efforts to reach such adjustments marked the long and checkered history of the industry. In the first half of the sixteenth century the advantages possessed by France gave her a rapid and extensive occupation of the region.

The effect of the discovery of North America by John Cabot in 1497 was brought out most immediately and most strikingly by the development of the fishing industry. Of the scattered documents relating to his expedition, the letter of Raimondo di Soncino to the Duke of Milan, written in London and dated December 18, 1497, may be regarded as the most valuable. Assuming that Cabot had returned on August 6 of that year, ^[1] sufficient time had elapsed for the available evidence to have been sifted and the more important results confirmed. Cabot and his companions, “practically all English, and from Bristol . . . affirmed,” writes Soncino, “that the sea there is swarming with fish, which can be taken not only with the net but in baskets let down with a stone, so that it sinks in the water. I have heard this Messer Zoane state so much. These same English, his companions, say that they could bring so many fish that this kingdom would have no further need of Iceland, from which place there comes a very great quantity of the fish called stockfish.” ^[2] Whatever the writer may have believed as to other details of information he had received from Cabot and his companions, the fishery was regarded as certain and worthy of emphasis and report.

Bristol merchants with cargoes of “slight and gross merchandises” went with Cabot on his second voyage in 1498. Possibly in recognition of the rights of Portugal acquired in the Treaty of Tordesillas of June 7, 1494, ^[3] in which Portugal shared the New World with Spain, and of early trade relations with Bristol, ^[4] a patent dated March 19, 1501, was granted to John and Francis Fernandez and John Gonsalvez, and to Richard Warde, Thomas Asshehurst, and John Thomas, ^[5] and apparently an expedition was sent in that year and another in 1502. A new agreement dated December 9, 1502, provided for an amalgamation of the Cabot interests and the interests concerned in the charter of 1501 in an association which became “The Company Adventurers to the New Found Lands.” Expeditions were sent annually from 1503 to 1505 by the company, but existing documents point to dissension and friction among its members.

Later ambitious attempts at trading and colonization, recorded in official documents, proved unattractive to capital and unsuccessful. The expedition of John Rastell in 1517 was a failure. ^[6] Although Bristol was enthusiastic over a projected adventure in 1521, ^[7] only the pressure of Wolsey and the King succeeded in getting a favorable reply to pleas for support from the Drapers and other companies of London. ^[8] Another expedition consisting of two vessels, the Mary of Guilford and the Samson, left Plymouth on July 10, 1527, but of this little knowledge has come to light. ^[9] A letter written on August 3 of that year from St. John’s Harbor, Newfoundland, by John Rut of the Mary of Guilford tells us that they “found eleven saile of Normans, and one Brittaine, and two Portugall Barkes, and all a-fishing.” In 1536, Richard Hore of London chartered the William to go to Newfoundland. She left in April and returned in September or October and “caught fish or caused them to be caught.” ^[10]

With these records of unsuccessful expeditions there is evidence of a successful fishery. In 1522, ^[11] at the outbreak of war with France, a plea was made for the dispatch of a convoy before the “commyng home of the New found Isle landes flete.” An act passed in 1548 (2 and 3 Edw. VI, c. 6) stated that

Such exactions were made subject to severe penalties. This statute would imply that the fishery had become important enough to offer organized resistance to the demands of the navy in its levy of food supplies. But in spite of a market, ^[13] and encouragement from the government, ^[14] the growth of the Newfoundland fishery in the first half century appears to have been limited. England continued to depend on Iceland. In 1528, 149 vessels, all from east-coast ports—8 being from London—were engaged in the Iceland fishery, ^[15] and in 1533, 85 vessels returned from that area. As late as 1578 Parkhurst wrote: “The trade that our nation hath to Island [Iceland] maketh that the English are not there [in Newfoundland] in such numbers as other nations.”

The scant evidence of English fisheries in Newfoundland in the first half of the sixteenth century contrasts strikingly with the abundant evidence of French and Portuguese fisheries. The Portuguese were directly concerned in the possibilities of trade with the Orient. On October 28, 1499, letters patent were issued by King Manuel of Portugal to John Fernandez ^[16] and on May 12, 1500, a new patent was issued to Gaspar Corte-Real. Fernandez apparently became concerned in the Bristol venture of 1501. Corte-Real went on an expedition to the New Lands in 1500, and again in 1501, from which second expedition he failed to return. Fresh letters patent were issued in January, 1502, to his brother Miguel, but in that year he also was lost. A fourth expedition sailed in 1503 but without tangible results. The first evidence of interest in the fisheries is found in a document dated October 15, 1506, referring to “a grant of possession . . . made of the tithes on the fish that come from the fisheries of Newfoundland” to the seaports near Vianna. ^[17] “Some verdicts given by the judges of the Royal Customs” in connection with the tithes probably refer to preceding years. The fishery was sufficiently important by 1506 to warrant an attempt to secure a decision as to the disposition of the tithes that would be favorable to the King. “And since this is a matter of great importance to our service and must not pass without control we order you, as soon as this reaches you, to find out the towns in which the said possession has been thus granted, and not to allow those who hold it to make use thereof.” ^[18] Fagundez made a voyage to the “new lands” in 1520 and letters patent were dated at Vianna on May 22, 1521. The ports about Vianna probably sent annual expeditions. A map accompanying the account of a voyage in 1539 ^[19] locates the Island of Baccalaos (Portuguese) between Cape Race and Bonavista; and the early existence and persistence of Portuguese names on the maps of Newfoundland serve as evidence of Portugal’s early and sustained interest. On the other hand, John Rut found only “2 Portugal barkes” as against “eleven saile of Normans and one Brittaine” in St. John’s Harbor on August 3, 1527. Roberval found “seventeene shippes of fishers” when he arrived at St. John’s on June 8, 1542, and spent a good deal of time “in composing and taking up of a quarrell betweene some of our countreymen and certaine Portugals,” from which it might be inferred that the Portuguese were on the increase. But they were probably fewer in numbers than the French. ^[20]

It would be dangerous to suggest that the number of documents extant is an index of the importance of the fishery, but such an index would point to the development of an important French fishery. It is probable that the French arrived on the fishing grounds at about the same time as the Portuguese or possibly as early as 1504. ^[21] In 1509 Norman and Breton vessels were going to Newfoundland, and in 1510 “Newland” fish were being sold in Rouen. ^[22] A document ^[23] providing for a voyage by John de Agramonte from Spain, dated October 29, 1511, states “that two of the pilots may be Bretons or belong to some other nation which has been there,” that is, in Newfoundland. Not only were pilots to be obtained from Brittany but also wines, flour, and meat for the voyage. A document of December 14-17, 1514, refers to an agreement between the inhabitants of the Isle of Bréhat, not far from Pleneuf, and the monks of the Abbey of Beaufort providing that tithes might be exacted on cod and other fish taken from Newfoundland. ^[24] The voyage of Rastell in 1517 gave rise to his writing the poem “A New Interlude and a Mery,” according to which,

An English document refers to a ship from Rouen loaded with 9,000 fish and manned by eleven men, which was captured, probably in 1523; and a later document dated December 2, 1531, refers to the plundering of a vessel from Brittany, carrying a cargo of salted fish from the “new founde iland,” which had taken refuge at Ramsgate during a storm. In the decade from 1520 to 1530 Ango and other merchants of Dieppe and Rouen were said to have sent from 60 to 90 ships to Newfoundland. John Rut, as we have seen, found one Breton and 11 Norman fishing ships at St. John’s in 1527. It is probable that the fishery was a factor leading to the union of France and Brittany in 1532. Cartier found it necessary to secure an order forbidding fishermen to leave St. Malo before he had a crew in 1534; and he met with opposition for similar reasons in the following year. In 1547 the English captured 25 French ships with cargoes of fish. The evidence points to an important interest of the Channel ports in the fisheries of Newfoundland, probably because of the profitable market at Rouen and Paris.

French Fishing Ports

The ports of Brittany were supported not only by Channel markets but also by La Rochelle in the Bay of Biscay. According to a document ^[25] of October 15, 1523, Jehan le Moyne of La Rochelle was joined by Jehan Boisseau in a charter party dated March 26 to send the Margarite of Blavet to Newfoundland. The agreement entitled Boisseau to 2,750 cod. Following an agreement of the last day of March, he could also purchase 500. On June 17, Le Moyne had provided an outfit for the Marie from the port of Croisic for which he was to receive in return a share of the cod, oil, and the profits generally. In the same year Pierre Jourdain, le jeune, “marchant et bourgeoys” (outfitter) of La Rochelle and André Morisson entered into a charter party on April 14 to send the Catherine of Binic on a voyage to Newfoundland entitling them to a share of the “pesche, huilles, gaings et proufficts”; that is, of the “fish, oil, gains and profits.” The same men had apparently outfitted the Marguerite of Pornic and other ships under the same conditions. A document of October 22, 1523, refers to the disposal of the “third part of the fish, oil, gains and profits made on their voyage to Newfoundland according to the custom of the sea” ^[26] to three men and others absent in the Marguerite of St. Brieuc. La Rochelle was a financial center and ships from Croisic, Binic, Pornic, Blavet, St. Brieuc, and elsewhere were given an outfit in return for a definite number of cod or for a share of the returns. The capital was supplied by a relatively small group of men generally working in partnerships.

Breton experience was combined with La Rochelle capital. Guillaume Legatz of Paimpol in Brittany, master and pilot, was engaged for the sum of 30 livres tournois ^[27] by a La Rochelle merchant, Nycholas Mailhard, to take command of the Marguerite Antoinette on February 19, 1535, the ship and crew to be ready by March 25 ^[28] to sail and “make a first voyage, God willing, to the Newfoundland fishery.” ^[29] He took with him nineteen “compaignons,” and it was agreed that “Mailhard is to be held responsible for the payment of their wages and expenses in like manner and to the same amount as, each for each, other merchants and outfitters of La Rochelle would pay; and he has also, as a guaranty that they will be brought back to the said La Rochelle, paid over in advance to the said Legatz 8 livres tournois, which will be deducted from the above account.” ^[30] The arrangements were placed in the hands of the captain and pilot, who were expected to carry them out with the support of the merchants. On April 14 of the same year an agreement was made between Durant Buschet and Jehan Bernyer, “marchans et bourgeois” of La Rochelle, with Gluille Le Cludir of Pel Proux in Brittany to go as captain of the Xpristofle, 70 tons, of La Rochelle with twenty-two “compaignons pescheurs et mariniers,” the merchants supplying the boats, guns, cables, anchors, and provisions. The ship was required to leave with the first favorable wind and to return as early as possible. Of the returns, the merchants were entitled to two thirds and the captain and compaignons to one third, “thus giving each his rightful part of such catch as they may take in the said fishing voyage.” ^[31] Of such provisions as remained the merchants were to have first choice of purchase, “at such a price and for such money as other merchants would pay, honestly and without double-dealing.” ^[32] The men were lent 68 livres, 5 sols tournois for the voyage, to be paid back on their return to La Rochelle. ^[33] The arrangement was more distinctly a share arrangement, but was financed entirely by the merchants. In the autumn of 1533 Yvon Raymond, “marchant et maistre de la navyre nommée Xpristofle de Ploumanac” (merchant and master of the ship called the Xpristofle of Ploumanac), borrowed 30 livres tournois from Julien Giraud, “marchant et bourgeois” (merchant and outfitter) of La Rochelle, “for the first voyage that he hoped to make from La Rochelle to Newfoundland or other countries.” In return he promised to deliver 2,000 “moullues parées . . . bonnes et marchands (dressed codfish . . . prime and “merchantable”). Masters ^[34] were apparently emerging as relatively independent merchants.

Musset has suggested some conclusions based on references to 71 vessels from La Rochelle prior to 1550. ^[35] The majority ranged from 50 to 80 tons and occasionally to 100 and even 200. A relatively large number of men were required, averaging from 18 to 25 for ships of 70 or 80 tons. The master was at times given a salary or he was “an owner of one fourth.” If he was a merchant he was generally accompanied by a pilot. Other possible officers included a second mate, carpenter, surgeon, and a representative of the supplier, to check waste. Ships recruited their men from Brittany as they were preferred to all others. Payment by supply merchants ^[36] varied from payment in money to payment in kind or by shares. The men were required to give their supply merchants the preference in the sale of their fish at current prices. After 1550 the custom of giving one third to the men, one third to the boat owner, and one third to the supply merchant was apparently still kept up in the case of the “dry” fishery, ^[37] but only a quarter was given to those engaged in the “green” fishery. ^[38] Dry fishing required more attention and consequently a larger share, and apparently became important after 1550. Attempts on the part of the sailors to obtain more than a third were resisted. “A la grosse aventure,” that is, “subject to every risk,” was the chief basis on which loans were made; and risks were carried from the time of raising the anchor until the return home or forty-eight hours thereafter. Loans were repaid twelve to fifteen days after the return. Previous to 1550 interest rates were apparently omitted because of ecclesiastical objections, but from then on they varied from 20 to 40 per cent, depending on the scarcity of money, the solvency of the borrower, and other considerations. Basques and Bretons paid more than those in La Rochelle. Musset estimated that in 1537 the Xpristofle of 70 tons was herself worth 1,080 livres, her total returns in fish, 900 livres, and the profits were 27.75 per cent.

Bayonne apparently became interested in the Newfoundland fishery at about the same date as La Rochelle. On February 18, 1520, Pes de Le Lande was granted permission to finish loading the Senct Pe, near the small port of Cap Breton, for a voyage to Newfoundland; and on March 6 two merchants, one also a farmer, were given permission to purchase half their cargo of cider, “forty butts, of the best that can be found,” outside the city. The owner of the Senct Pe and one of the members of the partnership were given permission on the last day of March to unload a cargo of red lead from the Marie in order to take advantage of favorable weather to make a speedy voyage to Newfoundland, and to meet threats of the sailors to leave them. On February 6, 1527, permission was asked to load 24 butts of cider or even 20 butts outside the city on the ground that the petitioner had no money to buy them inside it. The documents are inadequate, but it would appear that at Bayonne certain substantial merchants, with vessels engaged in various activities, hired men to go to fish at Newfoundland.

Bayonne and St. Jean de Luz were linked to La Rochelle at a later date when the master played a more active part in financing expeditions. In 1537 the master and bourgeois of the Marie of St. Jean de Luz borrowed “subject to every risk” from a merchant of Bayonne 133 livres, 80 sols, and 6 deniers, payable fifteen days after the return of the vessel to La Rochelle or Bordeaux, and the master of the Baptiste of the same port borrowed sums from merchants of Bayonne, St. Jean de Luz, and La Rochelle. M. Doste of Bayonne was a party to loans to both ships, and to a loan of 266 livres, 13 sols, and 4 deniers to the master of the Marie of Ascaing. The Marie of Bayonne was loaded by merchants of La Rochelle; and in the following year the master of a ship of the same name and port borrowed 65 livres tournois. The master of the Catherine ^[39] of St. Jean de Luz borrowed 260 livres tournois “subject to every risk” from the same individual in La Rochelle. In 1541—to cite three vessels of St. Jean de Luz—the master of one, the Trinité, purchased his red wine from a La Rochelle merchant; the master of another, the Marie, sold his fish in advance to a prominent moneylender, Durand Buschet; and the master of the Madeleine ^[40] borrowed at La Rochelle 248 livres tournois from a Bordeaux merchant. In the same year three masters and bourgeois from Bayonne and one from St. Jean de Luz, each with a quarter interest in the Charles of Bayonne, borrowed 845 livres tournois from Buschet, and the master of the Saint Esprit borrowed from a La Rochelle merchant. In 1542 the Baptiste of St. Jean de Luz borrowed 128 livres from a Bayonne merchant. In 1548 the master of the Sainte Anne of St. Vincent borrowed 130 écus sol d’or for provisions. ^[41] Bayonne was handicapped in the later years of the period by the shifting of the bed of the Adour to the north, and fishing vessels became more dependent for finances and markets on Bordeaux. On April 13, 1546, the Marie de Cap Breton bound for Newfoundland took on board a “canonnier,” a cooper, and sailors at Bordeaux; and on April 19, 1548, a Cap Breton merchant living at Croisic borrowed 50 écus sol d’or at 30 per cent from a bourgeois of Bordeaux. A cooper was taken on by the same expedition. Two suppliers of Libourne borrowed money to outfit two vessels from Bordeaux. ^[42]

The Spanish Basque fisheries to Newfoundland apparently emerged in the last decade ^[43] of the period following a decline of the fishery off the coast of Ireland.

The destination of European fishermen is difficult to determine. It was claimed that Jehan Denys of Honfleur and a pilot, Gamart of Rouen, were on the coast north of Bonavista in 1506, and that the Pensée of Dieppe owned by Thomas Aubert opened up the northern fisheries to the Normans in 1508. As early as 1506 and again in 1539 it was stated that the coast from Cape Race to Bonavista had been occupied by the Portuguese, but Bretons and Normans in large numbers as well as Portuguese were fishing at St. John’s in 1527. The voyages of Cartier ^[44] show that fishermen from Brittany were interested in the northern region. Cartier and members of his crew had obviously been engaged in the fishery prior to 1534. Bonavista was a landfall for him just as it had been on earlier voyages made by himself and others. St. Catherine’s Harbor (Catalina) was well known and the Funk Islands were visited as a matter of course for supplies of fresh meat in the shape of great auks. Cartier proceeded along a well-known route to well-known places, Groais Island and Bell Island near Cape Rouge and Cape Dégrat on the Straits of Belle Isle. Grand Quirpon Harbor and Dégrat Harbor were well known, the name of the latter being in itself an indication of the position of the fishery. ^[45] Harbors on the North Shore bore generally recognized names including Chateau Harbor, Hillcocks Harbor (Black Bay), Whale Harbor (Red Bay), Blanc Sablon, ^[46] Woody Island, Bird Island (Greenly Island). At “a harbour and passage called the Islets [Bradore Bay] which is better than Blanc Sablon . . . much fishing is carried on.” Brest Harbor (Bonne Esperance) was regarded as a favorable harbor for securing wood and water and for fishing. At Shecatica Bay on June 12 they “saw a large ship from La Rochelle that in the night had run past the harbour of Brest where she intended to go and fish; and they did not know where they were.” Little was known of the territory ^[47] beyond Brest other than that it offered possibilities of exploration for such voyages as that of Jacques Cartier. His expedition made available information on the resources of the Gulf, on the salmon in Shecatica Bay, the abundance of cod at Bear Head near Port au Port on the west coast of Newfoundland, the birds on Bird Rock, the walrus on the Magdalen Islands, and the mackerel in Gaspé Harbor. The importance of the area, especially along the north shore of the Straits of Belle Isle, was further made plain in the report received from Indians at Nataskwan Point—on their return on August 5—to the effect that “the ships had all set sail from the Grand Bay [the Straits of Belle Isle] laden with fish.” Fishing vessels from La Rochelle and from the northern coast of France were established in this area before 1534 and in that year had secured their cargoes between June 12 and August 1. Such names as Belle Isle, Chateau, Bréhat, and Brest suggest Breton fishermen.

Cartier’s voyage in the next year followed much the same route to the Straits; and in the Gulf and the River St. Lawrence he reported further resources, including whales near Anticosti Island, walrus on the Moisie River, white whales at the mouth of the Saguenay and in Baie St. Paul, and, throughout the St. Lawrence, a great wealth of fish of various kinds. On his return in 1536 by way of Cabot Strait he met, during his stay from June 11 to June 16 at the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, “several ships both from France and from Brittany.” He stopped at Renewse, a well-known harbor, for wood and fresh water. The English expedition of 1536 describes the capture of “a French shippe . . . well furnished with vittaile,” probably somewhere along the northern coast of Newfoundland. In Cartier’s expedition of 1541 the harbor of Grand Quirpon was chosen as a rendezvous.

The discoveries of Cartier in the Gulf and in the river opened the way to the fishery in new waters. The geographical information ^[48] was summarized in the Cosmographie, dated 1544, of Jean Alfonse of Saintonge, an “excellent pilot” in Roberval’s expedition, and it included a survey of the coast line of Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence with descriptions, directions, and the distances of the various courses. Cabot Strait is called “le destroict des Bretons” and we learn of “la terre des Bretons,” or the portion of Cape Breton adjacent to Cabot Strait, and also of “le cap des Bretons.” ^[49] Breton fishermen had extended their activities westward from St. Pierre and Miquelon. The excellent fishing grounds of Gaspé had been discovered at La Baie des Molues, that is, Mal Bay, and adjacent areas. It could be said that “in this region and at the Island of Ascension [Anticosti] there is a great fishery of cod and many other fish, much more than about Newfoundland; and the fish, too, are much better than the Newfoundland fish.” ^[50]

Little is known regarding the discovery of the Banks. Cartier does not mention them, and the documents generally support the inference that fishing was confined to the coasts. References to the departure of ships are generally dated in March and April, that is, at a time that would allow of their engaging in the coast fishery and of their returning in August and later autumn months, or at times when ships returned from fishing on the Newfoundland coast. Cartier left St. Malo first on April 20, 1534, and then on May 19, 1535; and in both cases the fleet was delayed until he had a crew. It is probable that it was, comparatively, a long time before ships were able to equip themselves for a return voyage to the Banks without touching at the coast of Newfoundland for fresh supplies of water or wood. The bank fishery probably developed after the coast fishery had been established. The first reference to early departure appears later. From 1543 to 1545 the number of ships leaving Rouen, Havre, Dieppe, and Honfleur averaged, during January and February, about two a day. ^[51] At a later date the bank fishery was described as beginning in April and being over by July. The fish were large and “always wet, having no land neere to drie,” and were called “core fish.” ^[52]

In the first half of the sixteenth century Europeans discovered and prosecuted the fishery on the southern and eastern coasts of Newfoundland and even reached out to the Banks. European nations with supplies of cheap salt, such as Portugal and France, that were weak in agricultural development, limited of technique in the production of transportable supplies of meat products (protein) for the navy and other purposes, and had a large Catholic population became actively engaged in the Newfoundland fishery. The Portuguese, sailing from a relatively small number of ports, concentrated on the Avalon Peninsula; and they probably attempted to drive vessels from the scattered, relatively independent ports of France, and especially of Brittany, to the more distant portions of the coast line farther north, and to the south and west. Breton ports and others relied on Rouen and La Rochelle for financial support and for markets. The expansion of the fishery, first carried on for the home market, was followed by the growth of an export trade, particularly to England. The resources of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, and the Banks had been explored and in part developed. The technique of the industry had been mastered in so far as the green fishery was concerned, with its reliance on abundant quantities of salt, and on animal life—for example, the birds ^[53] of Baccalieu and the Funk Islands—for bait and food. And a financial and marketing organization had been built up.

Appendix

Coins and Money Values^[1]

The various coins and money values appearing in this volume may well seem hopelessly puzzling. What are sols and livres tournois, or rials, ryalls, réals, and royalls of 8, or escuiz, escus, écus sol, escuis d’or sols, and escus sol d’or? What were they worth? The context gives us their value in their own time; but, of present-day coins, which would come nearest them? And how did they compare with the contemporary pound, shilling, or penny?

Questions answerable only approximately. For with the discovery of America, great quantities not only of cod but of new gold and silver began to go to Europe. The result, for almost a century and a half, was a great cheapening of the precious metals, and endless shiftings of their reciprocal values. At the same time, too, royal greed, official necessity, and private clipping and counterfeiting tended constantly to reduce the weight and fineness of many coins. Indeed, for most of our period ^[2] only the little brass scales of the money changers could say with any final accuracy how the monies of England and the Continent really “balanced.”

But with all that there are things which clarify. Even as twenty English shillings made a pound and twelve pence made a shilling, so did twelve sous (or sols) make a French pound or livre and twelve deniers make a sou or sol, or at least a sou or sol tournois. All the royalls, rials, réals, and their like are simply one and the same réal, while all the escuiz, escus sol d’or, and écus sol are the same écu sol. The number of coins involved are in fact comparatively few, and some of them were of marked longevity and steadiness.

Taking English currency first, from 1489 to 1542 the sovereign or pound ^[3] weighed 240 grains troy, and was 23.3½ carats fine. That is, in present-day American gold it would be worth almost $10.00. ^[4] In “the great debasement” of the 1540’s it was cut to 169 grains at 22 carats, and thereafter the figures were: 1552, 174; 1601, 171.9; 1604, 154.8; 1619, 140.5; 1663, 129.4; 1696-1699, irregular but falling; from then till 1816, the 21-shilling guinea at 129.4; 1817 to 1870, 122.27; 1870 to 1914, 123.27.

Coming to the shilling and penny, in theory there was always a shilling in existence, which, at 925 fine, weighed 144 grains from 1500 to 1526, 128.40 to 1544, was then debased to as little as a third of its silver weight, but in 1560 was of good metal again, and weighed 96, then, in 1601, 92 and in 1670, 87.25, at which weight it remained to the present. As for the penny, silver till 1670, and always one twelfth of the weight of the shilling, in theory it likewise was continuously existent. ^[5] But, actually, for much of the time, both shilling and penny were driven into hiding by tradesmen’s tokens, survivals of old coinages and clipped or counterfeit money; and, rightly, they should simply be thought of as one twentieth and one two hundred and fortieth of the gold pound, that is, merely as money of account, like our own mill and guinea.

On the Continent in 1500 three standard gold coins were being minted, the Spanish and the Venetian ducat and the French écu sol. All alike weighed 54.9 grains, and all were above 23 carats fine. If our fishermen sold their cod for so many thousands of ducats in the Atlantic ports of Spain, they were probably paid in Spanish ducats, worth at first about $2.30 today, and gradually decreasing to a value of some $1.95 in the two centuries that followed. ^[6] If the cod were sold in the Mediterranean, where the Venetian ducat had long been the great trading medium, early exchange would be about the same. While the sovereign still weighed 240 grains both ducats were current in England for at least 4s. 6d. And, as the sovereign lost weight, their exchange value rose accordingly. In 1618, for example, the Venetian ducat brought more than 7 shillings.

But the écu sol, or écu d’or au soleil—“the gold crown of the sun”—was preëminently the French gold piece of the fishery. It was so called because a tiny sunburst capped its escutcheon, and had nothing to do, of course, with the “sol” that was the old name for sou. All the écu sol’s other names are merely archaic or colloquial. First minted in 1475, it virtually kept its value, with one bad but brief debasement, until it was officially withdrawn in 1692. Quoting it in modern francs, it was worth 11.60 till 1519, 11.35 till 1548, and 11.14 to the end, that is, in dollars, a decrease from some $2.24 to $2.15, or about 4 per cent. In 1641, reduced very slightly, and doubled in weight, it became the “demi” of the first louis d’or. As such under various names it lived on through the Revolution and the nineteenth century. And it is still the half “louis” or 10-franc gold piece of today. Suffice it that for more than two centuries it was the true gold standard of France. And even where it does not appear in the transactions of the French cod fishery it was the écu sol that was the key to all actual value.

For the livre tournois—the livre of Tours—and the other unspecified livre—really the livre parisis, or the livre of Paris—were not coins at all, but monnaie de compte, French money of account. The sou or sol was a coin, first silver and then copper. The denier was a tiny bit of minted silver or copper until, in the end, it too became only monnaie de compte. But no livre had ever been minted either in Tours or Paris. Livre was merely a term for what had once been a definite part of an 8-ounce block of gold. And, in 1364, the livre tournois was still held to be worth as much as a gold franc, or 18 francs ($3.47) today; that is, much more than any écu sol. But livres were only fiat money, unbacked even by stamped paper. The gros, the teston, and other coins of real silver or gold were being minted. People much preferred them. And the livre tournois, the livre parisis which had grown up with it, and all their coördinated sols and deniers continued to lose value. In 1500, 1 livre tournois, 6 sols, and 3 deniers (1 l.t. 6s. 3d.) were still worth an écu sol, but in 1519 2 livres tournois were demanded; in 1523, 2 l.t. 5s.; in 1561, 2 l.t. 10s.; and in 1573, 2 l.t. 14s. In 1577 a royal attempt—the first of many—was made, as we would say, to peg or tie the livre tournois to the gold écu at 2 l.t. 60s.; but by 1578 the price was 3 l.t.; by 1602, 3 l.t. 5s.; by 1640, 5 l.t. 4s.; by 1643, 5 l.t. 4s. 6d.; by 1669, 5 l.t. 10s.; and by 1689, 6 l.t. 5s. For the next century the drop continued, with the figures doubtful. But we know that the Revolution found the écu sol worth substantially ten times the livre tournois.

For present purposes, however, the record above has its worth for us in this: Because of the lasting staunchness of the écu sol we cannot merely translate its value, from 1500 to 1692, into contemporary shillings and present-day dollars. Linked as it is to the livres, it offers us France’s detailed price chart for her whole Newfoundland fishery.

There still remains the silver coin of Spain. And if its account is easily rendered, it is a memorable one. One coin only enters in, the réal, originally an eighth of the ancient Moorish piastre, and, from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, the Spanish monetary unit. When in the latter period of the cod fishery the réal began to appear in the record, it could pass for half a shilling, and indeed, was often called the Spanish sixpence. Two-, four-, and eight-réal pieces were also coined, the largest being the “pieces of eight” of the Spanish Main; and the “piece of eight” was to know its own changes. It became the Mexican dollar; but it still remained a dollar “of eight pieces,” which in old California became “bits,” and thus gave the réal a place in American currency which, if unofficial, bids fair to be lasting. Meanwhile, the eight-réal piece had also become the American dollar itself. And finally this one-time piastre of the Moors in old Spain became the “trade dollar,” went around the Horn in a hundred Yankee clippers, and played the greatest of all parts in opening up age-old China and the East.

The second half of the century was characterized by the rise and decline of the Spanish fishery, the expansion of the English fishery, and the adjustment of the French fishery to these major developments. Commercialism in England and France thrived on the rising prices which accompanied specie imports to Spain. ^[1]

The English advanced from a position of minor importance in the Newfoundland fishery at the beginning of the second half of the century to one of major importance at the end. ^[2] Legislation was ^[3] enacted to encourage the fishery, ^[4] but it apparently encouraged trade rather than industry. An act of 1548 (2 and 3 Edw. VI, c. 19) regarding Lent was extended in an act “for the better maintenance and encrease of the navy” (5 Eliz., c. 5), 1562-63, which added Wednesdays to Saturdays as fish days. The same act permitted any subject for the four years following April 1, 1564, to carry fish out of the realm in any British ship without paying customs dues. This provision was revived and continued for six years in 13 Eliz., c. 11, 1570. In 1579 the Newfoundland fishery was declared exempt from an embargo on ships and mariners. In 1580-81 an act (23 Eliz., c. 7) prohibited imports of foreign-cured fish by Englishmen, but exempted such fish as came from Iceland, the Shetlands, and Newfoundland. The preamble of 39 Eliz., c. 10, 1597-98, which repealed it, stated that the

Wars with France and Spain hindered the fishing industry. ^[5] In spite of Anthony Parkhurst’s enthusiastic report in 1578 that the English fishing fleet in Newfoundland, “since my first travell being but 4 yeeres, are increased from 30 sayle to 50,” ^[6] the fishery made slow progress until after the defeat of the Armada in 1588. Sir George Peckham wrote in 1584, “It is well knowen that in sundry places of this realme ships have been built and set forth of late dayes, for the trade of fishing onely: yet notwithstanding, the fish which is taken and brought into England by the English navy of fishermen will not suffice for the expense of this realme foure moneths, if there were none els brought of strangers.” ^[7] Dried fish were in demand to victual the army and the navy and ships going below the line. Two merchants of Chester in an agreement made on September 26, 1580, ^[8] purchased from the master of a ship “34,000 Newland fish merchantable, at 10s. the 100 . . . also foure tonnes traine at £12 per tonne.” ^[9] The war with Spain was responsible for high prices and a temporary decline in the English fishery. At Chester, in 1586, 20,000 Newfoundland fish were purchased at 20 shillings a hundred for the army in Ireland. ^[10] Trading was prohibited to Brittany, though allowed to Jersey and Guernsey, and in 1589 it was reported that only 10,000 Newfoundland fish came on the market.

After the defeat of Spain recovery was rapid. Fish were sold to France and through France to Spain. On July 20, 1590, Richard Seguiner, an English merchant at Weymouth, sold three merchants at Honfleur 5,000 or 6,000 green cod ^[11] “bonne et suffisante, loyalle et marchande à 66 poignées par chacun cent, moyennant le prix et somme de 6 escus sol chacun cent.” ^[12] In 1593, only the Newfoundland fleet made profits; in 1594, it was estimated to number 100 sail. Plymouth alone had 50 sail in 1595. It was of these ships that Sir Walter Raleigh wrote to Sir Robert Cecil, “If these should be lost it would be the greatest blow ever given to England.” ^[13]

Markets in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece

In 1597 Dutch, Irish, and French ships were at Plymouth in September to purchase fish on the arrival of the Newfoundland fleet. A year later large cargoes of Newfoundland fish were brought to Southampton and Poole and were mostly sold by October for shipment to Spain by way of France. On September 17, 1599, a license was given to export from England 60,000 “Newland fishe, whereof there is at this present good quantitie in the most partes.” ^[14] The act passed in 1598 (39 Eliz., c. 10) permitted British subjects to carry foreign fish. A document of 1604 provided for the insurance of the Hopewell of London, 120 tons, “from the day and hower of the lading of the saide fishe aboorde the said shippe in the newe found land aforesaid, and so shall continewe and endure untill suche time as the same shippe with the same fishe shal be arived at Toulone and Marcelleze and the same their dischardged and laid on land in good safety . . . after the rate of seaven per cent.” That is, London vessels were engaged in carrying fish from Newfoundland to France and to Marseilles, and moreover were able to secure insurance for the voyages.

With the rise of the industry there was built up an elaborate and elastic financial organization.

The development of the fishing industry and of the attendant trade contributed to the breakup of the control of trade to Spain and Portugal by chartered companies. The first charter ^[16] to trade with Spain and Andalusia was granted in 1530 and included ships from Southampton, Lyme, Exeter, Barnstaple, and Chester. An application by an exclusive company of merchants for a charter to trade with Spain and Portugal was opposed in 1574, but was conceded in 1577. Nevertheless, ships not belonging to the company were carrying corn and fish to Spain and Portugal in 1580. Their union in 1581 became a source of strength rather than of weakness to English trade, and it continued to be so even after the destruction of the Armada and the expulsion of English merchants from Lisbon in 1589. Imports of sugar, especially from the Indies, Barbary, and the Azores, were added to those of wine and salt. ^[17] The growing of sugar in Brazil resulted in direct trade thither from England, with the support of the English Council (1582), in spite of protests from the company trading to Spain and Portugal. An expansion of trade because of, and in spite of, both company control and the outbreak of hostilities was largely responsible for a favorable treaty in 1604.

The concentration of the English fishing interests in the West Country and the equipment of large English ships for the “shipping and furniture of munitions” ^[18] strengthened the hold of the English in Newfoundland as contrasted with that of other nations. The problem of cheap supplies of salt was partially solved by what was made available by foreigners in Newfoundland. In return for this the English seem to have conferred upon themselves in some manner a sort of general overlordship, at any rate as regarded the Portuguese. Parkhurst ^[19] refers to the English as “commonly lords of the harbours whence they fish.” And, he says, they “doe use all strangers help in fishing if need require according to an old custom of the countreys, which they [the strangers or foreigners, offer to] do willingly so that you take nothing more than a boate or twaine of salt as a tax for protecting them.” The English probably maintained their early affiliations with Portugal and assisted the Portuguese against the French—though Parkhurst purchased fish from “the Portugals and Frenchmen” both. He complained that the Portuguese had promised to deliver salt in return for protecting them from the French for two years, and that their failure had caused a loss of 600 livres, of which half was lost by his fishermen. He therefore asked for Hakluyt’s advice as to whether he should attempt to collect in Portugal, or seize Portuguese goods in England, or salt in Newfoundland to that amount, or as much fish as 600 livres worth of salt would make. An increase in the number of “western men,” that is, West Country men, meant increased demands for salt even when conditions were favorable for drying “light-salted” fish. ^[20]

Any expansion of the industry and of trade depended on the accessibility of supplies of salt. ^[21] The Portuguese found it difficult to carry more than enough for their own green fishery and provisions, and consequently had far from an adequate supply to meet the demands of the English. Parkhurst hoped to find rich mines “more profitable for fishing than any yet we have used, where wee shall have not far from thence plentie of salt made undoubtedly, and very likely by the heate of the sunne, by reason I find salt kerned [dried] on the rocks in nine and fortie [49°], and better: these places may bee found for salte in three and fortie.” ^[22] Sir George Peckham wrote:

As a result of the salt problem the English fishery ^[24] tended to be concentrated in Newfoundland in regions suitable for “light-salting,” and where trade could be carried on with the Portuguese; i.e., in the regions south of Trinity Bay, or roughly in the Avalon Peninsula, including Harbor Grace, Conception Bay, St. John’s, Ferryland, Fermeuse, Renewse, Aquafort Tor Bay, Capelin Bay, Broyle, Trepassey, St. Marys, Placentia, and St. Pierre.

As early as 1579 Whitbourne went to Trinity Harbor in a 300-ton ship sent by Master Cotton of Southampton which “killed great store of fish” and returned to the home port. Four years later he was in command of a 220-ton ship sent by Master Crooke of the same port, on which voyage he witnessed the ceremony of the taking possession of St. John’s by Sir Humphrey Gilbert. In that year Gilbert had planned to arrive in Newfoundland in August when, he felt, his fleet “should be relieved abundantly with many necessaries which after the fishing ended they [the fishermen] might well spare and freely impart unto us.” ^[25] For a rendezvous Gilbert’s ships had settled upon Cape Race, Renewse, or Fermeuse. They arrived at St. John’s Harbor on August 3 and found “36 sailes of all nations” of which about 20 were Spanish and Portuguese and the remainder English.

There is little evidence that the English fishery had penetrated to the Gulf of St. Lawrence through Cabot Strait until after the defeat of the Spanish. The first vessels went to the Magdalen Islands in 1593 to participate in the walrus fishery. The Grace, of 35 tons, left Bristol on April 4 in the following year in search of whales, which, it was said, when wounded went to Anticosti to die; but the Grace’s crew succeeded in finding only “wonderfull faire and great cod fish.” On her return she started to collect a cargo of fish at Placentia but went on to Farillon (Ferryland) where she found 22 English vessels. Charles Leigh and Abraham Van Herwick of London sent two ships, one of 120 and the other of 70 tons, which left Falmouth on April 28, 1597, for the Magdalen Islands. They obtained a pinnace of seven or eight tons at Ferryland from “M. Wil Sayer of Dartmouth, Admiral.” At an island called Menego(?) north of Cape Breton, in sixteen fathoms they “caught great store of cods which were larger and better fish than any in Newfoundland. . . . We fell to fishing where the cods did bite at least 20 fathomes above ground and almost as fast as we could hale them into the ship.” ^[26] At the Magdalen Islands, with four hooks, they caught 250 cod in an hour. At that point and along the coast of Cape Breton and Newfoundland they carried out a series of raids on Spanish Basque vessels. The name “English Port,” given for a time to the present Louisburg, was a tribute to English interests.

Nor is there much evidence of the English fishery in the north. Parkhurst in 1578 suggested the possibilities of fortifying the Straits of Belle Isle as a means of capturing the fishery “and from thence [to] send wood and cole with all necessaries to Labrador lately discovered.” Davis in his voyage along the Labrador coast in 1586 noted an abundance of cod at 57°, and again at the entrance of a harbor at 56°, while at 54° 30′ there was “great abundance of cod so that the hooke was no sooner overboard but presently a fish was taken. It was the largest and best fed fish that ever I sawe, and divers fisher men that were with me sayd that they never saw a more suaule[?] or better skull of fish in their lives.” He refers again “to certaine fish which we purposed to weather and therefore left it al night covered upon the island.” On September 7, 1586, “wee saw an incredible number of birds; having divers fishermen aboord our barke, they all concluded that there was a great skull of fish; we, being unprovided of fishing furniture, with a long spike nayle made a hooke and fastened the same to one of our sounding lines. Before the baite was changed we took more than fortie great cods, the fish swimming so abundantly thicke about our barke as is incredible to bee reported of which, with a small portion of salt that we had, we preserved thirtie couple.” So promising were the possibilities that in 1587 “two shippes were appointed for the fishing and one pinnasse for the discoverie.” Between 54° and 55° “in sixteene days the two shippes had finished their voyage and so presently departed for England.” ^[27]

The Portuguese fishery declined to relatively minor importance, and when Portugal became a part of Spain in 1581 she was affected by the aggressiveness of England. Parkhurst wrote in 1578 that the Portuguese, “not lightly above 50 saile, make all wet”—preserved their cod green or merely salted—and were engaged in the fishery from April to July. Their tonnage was estimated at 3,000, or an average of 60 tons to a vessel. They were engaged in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Cape Breton fishery as well as in that of Newfoundland. Sir Humphrey Gilbert wrote in 1583, “Whereunto the Portugals (above other nations) did most willingly and liberally contribute . . . [and we] were presented above allowance with wines, marmalads, biskets, sweet oyls.” After the defeat of the Armada the Portuguese were not in a position to give any aid to the English fishery, and England was compelled to secure supplies of salt from France.

The Spanish fishery acquired importance especially after the Peace of 1559, although it was said that in 1553 a Spanish fishing fleet which refused to accept a convoy to Newfoundland numbered as many as 200 ships and 6,000 men. In 1561 a dispute arose in Spain as to whether the church should be given 2 per cent of the proceeds of the Newfoundland fishery. In 1574 ships were described as leaving about the end of March and returning the latter part of September, while whalers left in the middle of June and returned in December or January. The fishery probably reached its peak in the decade from 1570 to 1580. Parkhurst gave an estimate in 1578 of “above 100 saile of Spaniards that come to take cod . . . besides 20 or 30 more that come from Biskaie to kill whale for traine. These be better appoynted for shipping and furniture of munition than any nation saving the Englishmen.” Parkhurst’s total tonnage, one of 5,000 or 6,000, suggests an average ship of 50 or 60 tons. They “make all wet and do drie it when they come home.”

The union of Portugal and Spain was followed by opposition from England. In August, 1582, a Mr. Ughtred of Southampton saw twenty Spanish and Portuguese vessels at St. John’s, and in the same year he robbed more than that number. Sir Humphrey Gilbert took possession of Newfoundland in 1583, and provided an excuse for attacks on the Spanish fishery. In 1585 Sir Bernard Drake captured Spanish ships and sailors. An embargo was laid on the Spanish Basque fleet in 1586 and was not lifted until late in 1587. As has been indicated, the destruction of the Armada contributed to the marked decline of Spain’s position in Newfoundland, and thereafter references to the Spanish fishery are scattered. English and French seized Spanish vessels as prizes during the difficulties of the latter part of the sixteenth century. In 1594, eight Spanish vessels were reported at Placentia, and in 1597 Spanish vessels were seen in the Bay of St. Lawrence on the south shore of Newfoundland, and at the Magdalen Islands and Cape Breton. In 1602 seven Basque vessels and several other cod-fishing vessels were noted in Newfoundland, and the Spanish Basques apparently maintained their position as whalers. ^[28]

The extensive French fishery, ^[29] with its dependence on divergent ports and relatively small ships, while aggressive toward English ships had itself been exposed to attacks from Spain. In 1554, 9 French fishing vessels, under convoy of a ship from Saint Pol de Léon, and another ship from Ile de Ré had been attacked by a Spanish squadron; and in the following year Spanish ships had captured 48 French vessels in Newfoundland and made a successful raid on St. John’s. The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559 had brought about renewed activity, and Jumièges, Vatteville, and La Bouille had 38 vessels, chiefly from 100 or 120 to 150 tons, which left in January and February, 1560, presumably for the Banks. In 1565 Croisic and St. Malo ^[30] each had 25 ships. Parkhurst described French and Breton shipping in 1578 as totaling 150 sail, mostly small ships not over 40 tons, with some larger, the whole tonnage probably not exceeding 7,000.

The financial organization of Rouen which was so close to the Paris market appears to have become extensive, and reflected the expansion of the industry, particularly the bank fishery. A list ^[31] of the loans on fishing vessels registered in 1564 in the archives at Rouen to protect the lender from fraud included about 50 vessels with a total tonnage of 5,500 or 6,000, of which Havre had 19, with 2,865 tons; Honfleur 4, with 460 to 480; Fécamp ^[32] 5, with 350; Vatteville 2, with 120; St. Valery en Caux 4, with 280; Barfleur 2, with 280; Jumièges one, of 70 tons. And a miscellaneous group of 14 ships, probably belonging to Rouen, totaled possibly 1,000 to 1,200 tons. The smallest ships averaged 50 to 60, a large number were listed at 80, several at 100 to 140, and two at 200. Financial support ^[33] was obtained mostly from Rouen.

The risks that the borrower ran made it necessary for him to depend on a large number of lenders. ^[34] The amount of capital required to finance a fishing vessel varied. ^[35] When the needed funds were secured the vessels were outfitted and left for such places as the Bay of Croisic in Brittany to obtain salt en route for the Banks. On their return, fish were discharged at Havre, Honfleur, and other points. The wide distribution of small loans, the high rate of interest, and the financial structure by which dependence was placed primarily on those directly concerned with the industry were possibly a result of heavy losses but more probably of the overwhelming importance of the vessel as a unit. The master was in many cases the bourgeois, but there were several cases in which the bourgeois financed the master. In some instances the “victuailleur” is mentioned as well as the master and the bourgeois. The division of risk among bourgeois, master, victuailleur, and many small borrowers was characteristic of the industry. In France as in England it demanded the initiative of large numbers carrying on the industry from small vessels. The demands were reflected in aggressive commercialism in contrast with large-scale company organizations. It opened a breach in mercantilistic control which was progressively widened.

A list of ships registered at Honfleur ^[36] from 1574 to 1583 inclusive suggests more clearly in the dates of the majority of the documents—dates which run from January to March—the increasing importance of the Banks. During the above ten-year period references were made to about one hundred expeditions, the tonnage of the ships used varying from 60 or 70 to 100, 120, and 150. Allowing for similarities in names and a consequent difficulty of identification, about 50 ships were engaged in the fishery and about the same number of captains. The largest number of vessels recorded in one year was 17 in 1580, and the smallest number 3 in 1575. One of the captains, R. Baril, is recorded as having made 8 voyages from 1576 to 1583, 4 voyages in the Esperance and 4 in the Michelle, both vessels of 120 tons. Two captains, Jehan Poesson and Jehan Geffroy, made 6 voyages each, and 2 others made 5 voyages each. Seven captains made 3 voyages; 10 captains, 2; and 27, one voyage each. The ships showed even more conspicuous signs of specialization, 3 vessels making 6 voyages each; 6, 4 voyages; 6, 3 voyages; 13, 2 voyages; and 22, one voyage. Again, allowing for difficulties with names, the 2 ships making 6 voyages each had the same captain on each voyage. Four ships had the same captain 4 times; 5 ships the same captain 3 times; and 9 ships the same captain twice. Three of the captains went out 4 times in the same ship, 4 captains went 3 times, and 9 captains twice. One item would indicate 2 trips to the Banks or a second trip to the coast of Newfoundland. The Esperance, Nicolas Morin captain, referred to in February, 1582, is again referred to in the sale of a one-eighth share for 16 écus, 40 sols to François Péronne, bourgeois, on April 22, 1582.

As in the earlier period, the captains were largely a party to the outfitting of the vessels. A captain of a vessel may appear as a bourgeois or as a bourgeois “pour un quart” or “pour un seiziesme,” or as borrowing 16 crowns (écus) to go to Newfoundland, or as selling a “demi-quart de son navire” (an eighth interest in his ship) in order to make the voyage. A company was formed in Rouen in 1570 to develop the fishery or perhaps to lend money to fishermen. ^[37] In February, 1577, Thomas Legendre, a merchant of Rouen associated with Fernand de Quintanadoine, sieur de Brétigny, supplied Jehan Morin, captain of the Catherine, with 60 cahizes of Spanish salt to go to the fishery in Newfoundland in return for a sixth share in all the proceeds of the voyage—“tout le rapport du navire.” In February, 1582, Legendre lent 100 écus to Mathieu Le Tellier, captain of the Saint Jehan, at 35 per cent, and on March 21, 1582, he lent Guillaume Tuvache, bourgeois for an eighth of the Jacques, 33 écus for the Newfoundland voyage. It would appear that by 1582 Legendre’s group were becoming more interested in the purely financial side of the expeditions. In January, 1576, two bourgeois are named for a 70-ton boat; in January, 1577, at least four bourgeois are named for the Charles. On February 2, 1580, Robert Godeffroy is given a loan of 100 écus at 40 per cent by “noble homme” Jacques de Courseulle on three vessels going to the fishery. On March 30, 1590, Jehan Courel, captain of the Marie, borrowed “16 escuz deux tiers” (16 2/3 écus) at 35 per cent to repair his vessel. The rate of interest varied from 35 to 45 per cent, possibly because of a lack of insurance facilities. It appears probable that the captain of the ship was in a strong financial position, but that in many cases he relied for support on the bourgeois or on direct loans from financiers. A large proportion of the loans were, as has been said, “à la grosse aventure” (subject to every risk), with the vessel as security.

At La Rochelle the interests supporting the dry fishery began to be prominent, especially with the expansion of the French Basque fishery and the importance of the Spanish market. In 1556 the Baptiste of 100 tons had brought home 40,000 dry cod, 60,000 green cod, 20 barrels of whale oil, and 12 barrels of cod oil, the total being valued at 4,325 livres. In 1582 La Rochelle had about 10 ships which went to Newfoundland for dry cod, each ship carrying from 8 to 12 shallops. They all unloaded at La Rochelle. And in addition this port still had some 14 ships which went to the Banks. ^[38] In 1606 Lescarbot wrote, “When we were leaving La Rochelle there was a very forest of ships at Chef la Baie. . . . They set sail two days before us (May 11) and departed on the same tack for Newfoundland.”

Bayonne continued to rely on La Rochelle for financial support. On March 26, 1556, B. Deperelongue of Bayonne, bourgeois of the Saint Esprit of Bayonne, 80 tons, and Etienne Depayne of Cap Breton borrowed 200 livres from André Blouet, a merchant of La Rochelle, to send a ship to fish for cod at Newfoundland. On October 7 of the same year two men of La Rochelle, Jehan Disnemartin and Pierre Johanneau, chose Janycot de Montguiel of Cap Breton as master of the Jehan of La Rochelle and outfitted the ship to fish for cod; and on December 17 Basset, a baker and bourgeois of La Rochelle, sold J. Raymond 50 quintals of biscuits for a voyage to Newfoundland. On April 1 Bertrand and Saulvat Debahongnes, respectively bourgeois and master of the St. Esprit of Cap Breton, 100 tons, along with Jacques le Roy of La Rochelle, borrowed 200 livres from Claude Furgon and Joseph Barbier to engage in the whale fishery. On April 10 Barbier made an additional loan.

Bordeaux occupied a position minor but similar to that of La Rochelle in financing the fishery. In March, 1552, the Saint Esprit, 140 tons and 40 men, of St. Jean de Luz, purchased provisions at Bordeaux on this basis: for the boat one quarter, for the men ^[39] one third divided into 34½ lots, and for the supplier the remainder. One of the two partners of St. Jean de Luz who owned the boat borrowed various sums, and by April 22 completed the equipping of the vessel with guns, arms, and ammunition, besides six shallops and a “batteau,” or small boat. The outfit provided by the supplier included a ton of powder, 20 tons of wine, 120 quintals of biscuits, 10 of bacon, 2½ of olive oil, 22 barrels of vinegar, 120 pounds of candles, one barrel of beans, and 2 barrels of peas. In addition, he paid one half the cost of bringing the men to Bordeaux. In that year the take of a St. Jean de Luz vessel was valued respectively as follows: large green cod, 12 livres tournois a hundred; average green, 6 livres; small green, 3 livres; and “dressed cod also 3 livres [tournois] a hundred.” In the same year (1552) six vessels from St. Jean de Luz, one from Bayonne, one from La Rochelle, and one from Olonne, for the Newfoundland whale fishing, were reported at Bordeaux. These vessels varied in value from about 400 livres tournois to 1,380. The loans carried from 30 to 45 per cent interest. ^[40] The cargoes were sold at La Rochelle or Bordeaux.

French trade with Spain increased after the Peace of 1559, and especially as a result of the later hostilities between Spain and England. In 1577 the profits from the Newfoundland fishery as conducted from St. Jean de Luz, Zibura, Azcavin, and Urnia were estimated at 60,000 ducats. In 1584 it was reported that 50 large ships brought cargoes of fish and oil valued at over 140,000 ducats to San Sebastian, Bilbao, and Castrio. French Basque vessels became exposed to English attacks. A petition dated April 18, 1591, from Bayonne to the Privy Council of England asked for the release of a ship from Newfoundland with 108,000 dry fish, 4,000 green, and 14 hogsheads of train oil; and in September, 1591, English vessels were reported as having captured a ship from St. Jean de Luz that had a cargo of 15,000 dry fish and 60 hogsheads of train oil. The French Basque ports appear to have been largely concerned with the dry fishery, chiefly because of the nearness of the growing Spanish market and the decline of the Spanish fishery itself. By 1600 Newfoundland fish were selling in Bayonne at 14 to 18 royals (réals).

The diversity of markets for cod meant that the scattered French ports were interested in widely separated fishing grounds. Between 1600 and 1610 Rouen vessels were engaged in the fishery at Renewse, and St. Malo vessels at St. John’s. One of Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s ships seized two French vessels, one loaded with wines and the other with salt. There appear to have been no French ships at St. John’s at the time of his visit although they were engaged in fishing in adjoining harbors. They were found along the south coast of Newfoundland, around Cape Breton, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and along the north shore of Newfoundland as far as Labrador. Fish “parés” (dressed) were sold at La Rochelle in 1596 at 4 sols if from the north and 5 sols if from the south. French Basque whalers had penetrated the Gulf from the south and left their imprint in the Basque place names of the western coast of Newfoundland. ^[41] In 1564 St. Jean de Luz, Cap Breton, and Biarritz vessels counted on obtaining, at Placentia, salt which had been brought from Spain. Sixteen vessels left Cap Breton, most of them before the beginning of February. Survivors of Gilbert’s ship, the Delight, wrecked off Cape Breton, were rescued by Frenchmen on the south coast of Newfoundland and returned on a vessel sailing to St. Jean de Luz. Near the end of the century a vessel from St. Jean de Luz was reported in the Bay of Great St. Lawrence, and another from La Rochelle was seen at St. Marys Bay. In 1594 two ships from Sibiburo were reported fishing for cod off the Island of St. Pierre, and “3 score and odd sailes from Saint John de Luz, Sibiburo and Biscay” were seen at Placentia. Of these only eight were Spanish ships. Apparently the Bonaventure from St. Malo was the first French vessel to go to the Magdalen Islands, ^[42] where in 1591 it was successful in killing 1,500 walrus. The English captured a ship carrying 40 tons of train oil. In 1593 a ship from St. Malo, three-fourths loaded, was found by them in the same locality. In 1597 ships from Sibiburo and a large ship of 300 tons, a Biscay vessel from St. Vincent, were reported at ports in Cape Breton. At Louisburg English vessels found two ships from La Rochelle and two from Biscay, and at the Magdalen Islands two from St. Malo and two from Sibiburo. Lescarbot and Champlain told of meeting a Basque named Savalet, from St. Jean de Luz, at White Haven near Canso in August, 1607. He claimed that this was his forty-second voyage to those waters. By the end of the century most of the Basque fishermen were apparently French, and they had successfully established themselves in the dry fishery, walrus hunting, and whaling.

The rise of the English fishery in Newfoundland tended to force the French ^[43] to outlying areas, particularly in the Gulf and on the mainland; and the financial organization of the Channel ports gave support to an expansion to regions capable of meeting the demands of the Spanish market for dried fish, especially in the Mediterranean. Financiers such as Pierre de Chauvin ^[44] of Honfleur quickly appreciated the possibilities of the new areas. Interest in Canada on the part of capitalists coincided with the ambitions of Troilus du Mesgouez, ^[45] Marquis de la Roche. Privileges granted in commissions dated March, 1577, and January, 1578, resulted in unsuccessful expeditions in 1578 and 1584, the latter having been arranged with the support of St. Malo and St. Jean de Luz. A commission dated February 16, 1597, was followed by an arrangement (March 4, 1597) with Thomas Chefdhostel ^[46] of Vatteville in which the Catherine, of 180 tons, was employed to take an expedition to Sable Island to engage in the fishery and in the capture of prizes. With new letters patent of January, 1598, an expedition in two vessels, the Catherine and the Francoise, both of 90 tons, was sent to establish a more permanent settlement on Sable Island, and apparently it maintained itself, with some help from France, for five years. Meanwhile, with the assistance of Pont-Gravé of St. Malo, Chauvin secured commissions dated November 22, 1599, and January 15, 1600, by which he became a lieutenant of De la Roche especially as applying to certain territory “dans cent lieues seulement dans La Baye au long de la rivière vers Cadossart ou Tadossart” (extending only one hundred leagues in the Gulf and along the river toward Tadoussac). Under this commission a post was established at Tadoussac in 1599.

The French pursued their advantages in the bank fishery. Lescarbot reported near the end of the century that some men came to the Banks as early as February. The French “settinge furthe in January, broughte their bancke fishe, which they tooke on the bancke forty or three score leagues from Newefoundelande, to Roan [Rouen] in greate quantitie by the ende of May and afterwarde returned this yere again to the fisshinge and are looked for at home towardes the fifte of November.” ^[47] Whitbourne at almost the same date stated that about 100 French vessels went to the Banks, some of them making two voyages to them and a third elsewhere. “I have often . . . met French ships comming . . . deepe loden with fish” about the first of April that had gone out to fish in January, February, and March. ^[48] The fish were larger, thicker, and sweeter than on the Newfoundland coast, and, in France, Portugal, and Spain “that kind of fish usually sell at a great price.” They were taken on the Grand Bank by Normans from Honfleur, Dieppe, Boulogne, and Calais, and by fishermen from Brittany, Olonne, ^[49] and the country about Aulais. A 100-ton ship had a crew of 15 to 18 men and provisions for six months. The vessels loaded their salt at Brouage, Oleron, Ile de Ré, or in Brittany, where it was purchased at 10 to 12 livres per hogshead of about 31 bushels. Salt made up “almost all the rest of that which the ship can carry.” Each man ^[50] had from 8 to 12 lines and a larger number of hooks, 12 to 15 leads of 6 pounds each, and knives for heading, opening, and splitting the cod. Outboard staging was built along one side of the vessel, on which each fisherman placed a half hogshead reaching to the waist. A large leather apron from the neck to the knees projected over the edge of the half hogshead. The line was attached to it and the hook allowed to drop to about a fathom from the bottom and the lead to about two fathoms. With two lines, one cod was pulled up while the other was being put over the side. The tongue was taken out and kept as a means of counting the number caught by each man. Pieces of herring or cod entrails were used as bait. The catch might vary from nothing to between 25 and 200, or, exceptionally, 350 or 400 a day, about the limit of a fisherman’s capacity. Boys took the fish to those who dressed them. ^[51] The salter made a layer on the bottom of the hold arranging head by tail, and covered the layer with salt. Successive layers were laid above it and similarly salted, until the end of the day. After the fish had been left for three or four days and the water had drained away, the surplus salt was removed and new layers were put down and covered with new salt as before. The last treatment was regarded as final and the fish were ready to be taken to France. With the approach of Lent, ships with as little as half or two thirds of a cargo set out with the fish for the Paris market, for the first arrivals got the best prices for the new cod. They might, by arriving early, return for a second voyage and still be in time for the Lenten sale. The bank fishery was usually completed by the end of May. Denys estimated that at least three quarters and sometimes practically all of the catch was for Paris consumption. A ship of 100 tons would bring back from 20,000 to 25,000 fish; and a fisherman could make from 35 to 40 écus. To carry on the bank fishery with an eye to the Paris market during the Lenten season, ships had to start very much earlier. In many cases two trips were made to the Banks, and a third to the coastal areas.

In the first half of the sixteenth century, the fishing fleets in the New World had belonged chiefly to France and to a lesser extent to Portugal. In France, the industry had first been centered in Channel ports which sold what they caught to the Paris markets. Later the industry had extended itself to La Rochelle and the Biscay ports. Toward the end of the period the growing market of the Channel area had made possible another extension of the fishery, and had sent large vessels to the Banks. Vessels from Rouen and other ports of Normandy concentrated on the southern coast of Newfoundland. Brittany ports such as St. Malo were engaged in the fishery of Petit Nord and along the mainland of the Labrador, as well as on the south coast of Newfoundland and Cape Breton. La Rochelle gave strong financial support to the vessels from adjacent ports and, since the local demand was not great, also gave its support to the production of a surplus of dry fish for the English market.

In the second half of the century the Spanish fishery had become important and involved competition first with the French and then with the English. The fishing industry in England had begun to shift its activities from the east-coast ports with their interest in Iceland to the West Country ports which were concentrating upon Newfoundland. In 1580 Denmark enforced the paying of license fees in the Iceland fishery, and accelerated a migration of the English fishermen to the new grounds. This probably necessitated a change in their technique. “Englishmen have not the use of barrelling up of cod, and if it be not barrelled it is not vendible in France, neither can they make haberdine, for if they could it would be well sold in Spain and Portugal.” ^[52] What they had learned from their experience with Iceland stockfish, and also learned when limited to Newfoundland’s smaller fish and scant supplies of salt, could be of value in meeting the demands of warm countries. It helped England to produce a hard, dry cure for the Mediterranean. English vessels had obtained salt from the Portuguese in Newfoundland and in alliance with them had forced the smaller French vessels to betake themselves to regions less favorable. During the war with Spain, which for the time included Portugal, England relied on France for supplies of salt. Finally, with the decline of Spain, London ships carried fish produced by West Country fishermen from Newfoundland to the Mediterranean. With this development the struggle between the carrying trade allied with London and corporate interests and the fishing ships became more active. In the case of France, ships from her Channel ports and those from La Rochelle and the Bay of Biscay had the support of separate financial organizations. When they were forced to leave the Avalon Peninsula, the ships belonging to the French Basque ports moved to waters off the mainland—to the Canso regions, for example. As for Channel-port ships, they moved to the Gulf, particularly Gaspé; and there they produced dry fish for direct export to Spanish and Mediterranean markets.

The larger size of the English ships, the centering of England’s fishing interests in her West Country ports, and their concentration upon the dry fishery with its smaller demand for salt, as also their looking to foreign countries both for their markets and for supplies of solar salt, were outstanding factors in the competition which grew up between England and France. The French fishery possessed an extensive home market, and in particular a demand for the large fish produced and salted green on the Banks. Its fishing ships came from many diverse ports which were interested in both the dry and green fisheries. It was a fishery which had that flexibility of organization incidental to smaller ships and varied technique. The bank fishery had become important to the French Channel ports and the demands of the Paris market; and the dry-fishing industry had expanded, particularly as carried on by the fishermen of the Biscay ports for the Spanish markets. With the decline of the Spanish fishery, the market for dry fish grew in Spain and the Mediterranean, and consequently the French Channel ports and the English fishery both set themselves to produce it. West Country fishermen went to Newfoundland, cured the fish, and at first brought the product home to England for domestic consumption. Later they exported it from England. And, finally, ships from London went to Newfoundland and purchased fish to be carried directly to the Mediterranean. France brought back the heavier-salted green fish, dried it at home, and thereby produced a poorer cure. At St. Malo, fish brought back in August and September were spread out over large areas in the vicinity of the town. For France, cheaper supplies of salt, a large home market, and the distance between the various important centers of the industry—that is, Rouen, the Channel ports, La Rochelle, and ports on the Bay of Biscay—all this made it the more necessary for the French fishery to depend upon the Banks and on the more distant home areas for the drying process.

England’s relative scarcity of salt, her more limited home market, and her concentration of fishing interests in the West Country forced her to depend on areas suited to drying and adjacent to the fishing grounds. She acquired a foothold on Newfoundland for the dry fishery, while France had less interest in acquiring and occupying the land for such a purpose. France might expand to Gaspé and extend her interests in the fur trade of the St. Lawrence valley. But by the end of the century England was established on the Avalon Peninsula. The expansion of the markets for light-salted dry fish enabled her to increase her shipping, her direct trade in fish, and her indirect trade, by using ships released in the long closed season. Dried cod was food ^[53] of excellent keeping qualities, which gave it exceptional value for sailors on ships that went south of the line. Ships and sailors ^[54] were essential to the fishery. Moreover, it meant an expansion of trade, if only because the English fishery depended on solar salt produced in southern continental countries. The demand for cod became a demand for English ships and men. Directly and indirectly the fishing industry hastened the growth of shipping and trade which followed the decline of Spain and Portugal, and the opening of markets beyond the powers of France to occupy. The contribution of the industry to flexibility of organization apparent in the inroads on company trade, and in a lowering of interest rates through the development of insurance, became more conspicuous in the next century. The rise of prices in Spain, following the inflow of specie from the New World, had its part in the consolidation of the West Country fishing industry in Newfoundland and its expansion to New England.

NEWFOUNDLAND

The growth of the power of Holland after 1581 and her importance in the North Sea fishery accentuated the development of the West Country fishery interests in Newfoundland. ^[1] A three-cornered trade from England to Newfoundland, Spain, and the Mediterranean provided a basis for expansion, and gave England an industry with an abundance of shipping, an outlet for manufactured goods and provisions, a supply of semitropical products and specie, substantial profits, and ideal possibilities for the development of a mercantile policy. England was able, in part because of her relatively shorter distance from Newfoundland and in part because of the nature of fish as a foodstuff, to secure a strong and continuous hold on a product by which she obtained a share of Spanish specie and the products of the Mediterranean. Cod from Newfoundland was the lever by which she wrested her share of the riches of the New World from Spain.

The expansion of the fishery gave rise to a conflict which characterized the history of the fishing industry. It was limited to definite seasons and was prosecuted in favorable sites along the coast with a relatively small amount of fixed capital. The increase in the size of the English fishing fleet led to problems of space. Sir Thomas Hampshire attempted to solve these problems when he went to Newfoundland in 1582 by decreeing that “whatever room or space of foreshore a master of a vessel selected he could retain it so long as he kept up his buildings on it and employed it for the use of the fishing.” ^[2] Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in the following year,

These rights were eagerly sought for and later refused, ^[4] ostensibly because Sir Humphrey Gilbert believed that such land might contain minerals, but probably because of the protests of West Country fishing ships. The struggle of the fishing ships against government interference began at an early date.

The rise in value of the fixed equipment consequent upon the scarcity of lumber, the abuses which characterized seasonal occupancy, the advantages to be gained by monopoly control over favorable sites, and the character of the three-cornered trade were factors responsible for the struggle between fishermen and settlers. The number of men employed on fishing expeditions to Newfoundland was in excess of the number necessary to man the ship, Whitbourne’s estimate being ten extra per vessel. Trade with Spain and the Mediterranean involved either carrying the extra crew to these markets at an added expense, leaving them in Newfoundland until the following year, or employing ships to carry the fish to such markets and return directly to the West Country. Whitbourne stated that the number of ships in Newfoundland for the purpose of purchasing fish was not less than 40 in some years. According to Lewes Roberts (born in 1596), who had been in Newfoundland “in my younger days,” about 500 vessels “great and small” left England for Newfoundland annually, sailing about the end of April and returning in September. “And in this time,” Roberts wrote, “[they] doe not onely catch as many fish as will lade their shippes but also as many as will lade vessels of greater burthens that in the summer come hither from England and other parts to buy up the same and purposely to transport it for Spaine, Italy and other countries.” ^[5] The sack ships became an integral part of the trade, ^[6] and fish were sold from Newfoundland rather than on return to the West Country. Such ships made for an increase in the production of fish in Newfoundland and an increase in settlements, ^[7] whereas the West Country fishing ships were competitors in the carrying trade and objected to settlements as an infringement of their rights on the coast.

The struggle between the trading and carrying interests and the fishing interests became acute when the former attempted to establish settlements under the charter (May 2, 1610) ^[8] of the London and Bristol Company. The fishermen were elaborately protected by instructions, plans, and, in particular, by the following clause:

The instructions given in 1610 to John Guy, who was placed in charge of operations, provided for the exporting of “twelve months victualles with munition, nets and with all manner of tooles and implements,” as well as domestic animals. ^[10] And lest these measures should raise apprehensions, this was added:

The company planned at the end of the fishing season to send the fish over and above their own needs on the ships returning to England, and Guy was advised to purchase cod oil if it was obtainable at £8 a ton, and to send it to Bristol or to keep it in warehouses until a ship was sent to get it in January or February. Similarly, “a shipps lading of masts sparres and deal boards” was to be prepared to load any ship sent out with salt

The company expected to sell pine boards for making or mending fishing boats and it was hoped that timber could be found for the manufacture of hoops and staves.

“Certain orders for the fishermen to observe and keep in the Newfoundland,” published on August 13, 1611, on the other hand, involved conflict with the fishermen. “Ballast, press stones or anything else hurtful to the harbours” were not to be thrown out in the harbor but were to be carried ashore. No one was allowed to “destroy deface or any way work any spoil or detriment to any stage, cook room, flakes, spikes, nails or anything else that belongeth to the said stages,” and they were to use only the stages they needed and to repair them with timber fetched from the woods and “not with the taking down of other stages.” The “admiral” of each harbor was allowed only the beach and flakes needed for the number of boats “that he shall use with an overplus, only for one boat more than he hath,” and everyone coming afterward was allowed only what he had use for. Changing the marks on the boats was prohibited. No one was allowed to use the boats of others except in case of necessity and after notifying the “admiral.” No one was to destroy at the end of the voyage the stage, cookroom, or flakes he had used during the year. No one was allowed to set fire to the woods. All of these prohibitions carried penalties for their violation. ^[13]

Whitbourne, who was favorable to the establishing of settlements, undertook an investigation in 1615, “under the broade seale of the Admiralty,” with “a barke victualled and manned at my owne expense.” He found general disobedience. “It is well knowne that they which adventure to New-found-land a-fishing begin to dresse and provide their ships ready commonly in the moneths of December, January and February and are ready to set foorth at sea in those voyages neere the end of February, being commonly the foulest time in the yeere.” Every captain made all speed to reach the Newfoundland harbor first, which would make him that year’s “admiral.” For the “admirals” had “the chiefest place to make their fish on where they may doe it with the greatest ease and have the choyce of divers other necessaries in the harbors which do them little stead; but taking of them wrongs many others . . . which arrive there after the first.” He said that the men fished with hook and line on Sundays; that they dumped very large stones, used to press dry fish, into the harbors, thus spoiling the anchorage and endangering the ships and cables; and that the harbor at Renewse was in danger of being ruined.

Late arrivals were sometimes occupied for twenty days securing boards and timbers to fit boats for fishing and rooms for salting and drying fish, all of which involved a heavy expense in provisions. It necessitated an early start and delay after arrival, as well as the danger of complete loss in ice and bad weather. Whitbourne argued in favor of opening Newfoundland to settlement not only to check irregularities but also as an important halfway station to the West Indies, Bermuda, Virginia, or New England. “In the yeare 1615 . . . three ships returning from the West Indies did arrive there, purposely to refresh themselves with water, wood, fish and fowle and so have divers others done at other times to my knowledge.” Newfoundland would also serve as an important base in case of war with France, Portugal, or Spain; and the expansion of the fishery would increase shipping, mariners, and wealth, besides providing relief for unemployment and making it unnecessary to rely on the Dutch for supplies. He elaborated on the advantages due to the expansion, which would follow the development of plantations and the suppression thereby of the difficulties with the fishing ships which he had described. Taking a 100-ton ship with 40 men, he estimated the cost of provisioning and outfitting her for a year to be £420 1s. 4d. ^[15] With 8 three-man fishing boats catching an average of 25,000 fish per boat, ^[16] the season’s total catch would be some 200,000 cod. Assuming this to be a load for a 100-ton ship, allowance being made for the needed space for water, wood, victuals, and provisions for the men, the fish could be taken directly to Marseilles or Toulon “where the customes upon fish are but little and the kentall lesse than 90 pounds. . . . Such fish . . . I have not knowne to be sold for lesse than twelve shillings every kentall and commonly a farre greater price, and there speedy sales are usually made . . . and good returns had: and if any man will returne his money from thence hee may have sure bills of exchange, for payment thereof heere in London, upon sight of such bills.” Two hundred thousand fish sold at Marseilles, Whitbourne calculated, would weigh more than 2,200 “kentalls,” i.e., quintals, which at 12 shillings a quintal would bring £1,320; or, at 16 shillings, £1,760. If the ship had been chartered by the month she could be discharged at Marseilles, or chartered anew to go on to Spain for a cargo for England, and get to England in time for the next year’s voyage. In addition to the fish he put down in his estimate 12 tons of cod oil which could be sold in Newfoundland at £10 a ton, or £120 in all. In England it would sell at £18 or £20. To this he added 10,000 large green fish. They sold in Newfoundland at £5 a thousand, but in England they would bring twice that, and make the grand total £2,250. Of this the master and the ship’s company were entitled to one third, allowing a “small” sum for victualing, ship’s expenses, and charges. The owners were entitled to one third after deducting for the master’s allowance and for bonuses, over and above their share in the first third, to those men who had proven themselves much better fishermen than the others; and the victualers were entitled to one third. This, according to Whitbourne’s estimate, would leave £750, after deducting £420 1s. 4d. for supplying the 40 men, or “a profit of £331 11s.” (sic). During years of high prices for salt, bread, and beer the victualers were allowed one half and the crew and the ship one half. A ship chartered by the month for nine months at £40 a month or less would cost accordingly.

Salt was brought to England from Spain, Portugal, or France, and the ships leaving for Newfoundland “each yeare take neere halfe their lading of salt,” or not less than 7,000 tons. This, purchased at 20 shillings a ton, with an additional 20 shillings a ton for freight, involved an outlay of £14,000. In England, supplies ^[17] such as nets, leads, hooks, lines, bread, beer, beef, and pork represented the work of “great numbers of people [such] as bakers, brewers, coopers, ship carpenters, smiths, net makers, rope makers, line makers, hooke makers, pully makers and many other trades which with their families have their best means of maintenance.” Those engaged in financing the fishery were in a position to hire ships to load cod and take it to France or Spain; but the difficulties involved in the rigid terms of the charter party, in which the merchant must “discharge and also relade” though the commodities were “much dearer than at some other place not farre from it,” made it advisable to purchase outright. Whitbourne suggests that a ship of 100 tons should be purchased, and that two small barques of 30 tons each and two fishermen’s boats for each should be hired by the month. After acquiring the ship it was important to get as master a good man who understood fishing and who would hire the best fishermen. The barques should sail earlier than the large ship, which would leave about the end of March. The barques could sell to merchants 100,000 or more fish to be delivered in Newfoundland, and in return receive money in London on bills of exchange. Finally one barque might load with train oil and the other with green fish, and proceed to the most promising market. If the ship were chartered, fish could be contracted for in England:

The fish could be sold in Marseilles, Spain, Portugal, the Biscay ports, in “Nance [Nantes], Bordeaux, Rochell, Bayonne, Rouen,” or in the British Isles.

The fishermen opposed these elaborate arguments ^[18] for the establishing of settlements as a means of forwarding the expansion of the fishery. The western ports in December, 1618, launched an attack upon the settlers or “planters” brought out by the company, charging that they usurped “the chiefest places of ffishinge there” and disposed of the same to such as pleased them, that they took salt, casks, boats, stages, and other provisions left by the petitioners, that they prohibited the use of birds taken on Baccalieu Island for bait before the ordinary bait came on the coast, that they encouraged pirates, and that they summoned a court of admiralty “in the chiefest tyme of ffishinge” and “exacted ffees of trayne and ffishe for not apperinge.” ^[19] These charges were in the main denied but it was conceded that, “in regard of theire chargeable maintenance of a colonie on land, there all the yeare, it is conceivable to be lawful for them the inhabitants to make choice of their fishing place and not to leave the benefit thereof to the uncertayne commers thither.” The fishing interests replied that “no privilege [is] given by charter to planters for fishing before others; if choice of places is admitted, contrary to common usage, the petitioners contend that they ought rather to have it. [They] desire that the liberties reserved to them by charter may be confirmed.”

The general confusion arising from the struggle encouraged piracy. ^[20] In 1612 ^[21] a pirate named Easton took four ships from the Isle of May and later five more ships from other parts, about one hundred pieces of ordnance, “victualles and munition,” while from the English he took as much as £20,400, as well as 500 fishermen “taken from their honest trade of fishing.” Two years later Sir Henry Mainwaring arrived with “8 sails of warlike ships,” one of which had been taken from the Banks and another from the coast, and exacted from the fishing fleet a sixth of its men and “the one first [?] part of all their victuals.” On September 14 he seized almost 400 sailors and fishermen. In 1616 pirates took the ordnance from two ships, one from Bristol and the other from Guernsey. Part of Sir Walter Raleigh’s fleet on its return from Orinoco in 1618 taxed fishermen in all the harbors of Newfoundland for powder, shot, and the like to a value of £2,000 besides “one hundred and thirty men they took away.” In 1619 the Mayor of Poole demanded the suppression of piracy in Newfoundland. ^[22]

Vaughan claimed that plantations would check piracy both in Newfoundland and in the Mediterranean. “Those petty merchants, which were led with desire of gaine, not willing to enranke themselves into an orderly societie” might be saved by “a couple of good ships on the charge of the fishermen, which yeerely frequented that coast, continually to assist them against the invasions of pirats, who had a few years before pillaged them to the damage of fortie thousand pounds, besides a hundred peeces of ordnance, and had taken away above fifteene hundred mariners to the great hindrance of navigation and terrour of the planters.” A check would also be imposed on “the misgoverned and stragling courses of the Westerne merchants which either of foolehardinesse, carelessenesse, or of a griping humour to save a little charge, adventured in their returne from Newfoundland, without fleets, or wafters to guard them, or any politicke order to passe through the straights of Gibraltar to the Dominions of the King of Spaine, to Marseilles, or Italy, where yeerly they met with Moorish pirates.” ^[23]

It was also claimed that settlements would stop the destructive activities of the fishing ships. Captain Edward Wynne wrote from Ferryland on August 17, 1622: “For there hath been rinded this year not so few as 50,000 trees and they heave out ballast in the harbours though I look on.” At the same time, one “N.H.” wrote describing a fire which “began between Fermouse and Aquaforte, [and] it burned a week.” Daniel Powell, in a letter dated July 28, 1622, wrote: “But the woods along the coasts are so spoyled by the fishermen that it is a great pity to behold them, and without redresse undoubtedly [it] will be the ruine of this good land. For they wastfully barke, fell and leave more wood behinde them to rot then they use about their stages although they imploy a world of wood upon them.” ^[24] The best trees were cut down to build stages and rooms, i.e., sheds for various purposes, and many others were destroyed by cutting and barking, the bark with turf laid above it being used as indicated to cover the stages and roof, with the result that within a mile of the sea the woods were destroyed. The list of damages in 1620 included

The company had failed to form settlements in the face of such confusion. The first establishment at Cupid’s Cove, Conception Bay, was followed by an offshoot at Harbor Grace, but continued difficulties led to the disposal of large tracts in grants. ^[26] Trepassey was settled by Sir William Vaughan in 1617, Ferryland was established under Lord Baltimore ^[27] in 1621, and the area between Renewse and Aquaforte was granted to Lord Falkland but never developed. Lord Baltimore was held to have had thirty-two boats in the fishery at Ferryland, ^[28] but he probably lost money. John Mason succeeded John Guy in 1615 but returned to England in 1621, where he was attracted to the possibilities of New England in 1622. In 1632 he became treasurer of an association organized to compete with the Dutch in Scottish waters.

West Country merchants not only carried on a struggle against monopoly control through the fishing ships in Newfoundland but also engaged in a struggle against centralized control in England. Expansion by the sea to Newfoundland contributed to the breakdown of control over external development by company organization. The control of external trade by chartered-company organization had reached the peak of effectiveness at the end of the sixteenth century, ^[29] and the end of the war with Spain in 1604 brought about a renewal of the struggle of the outports, particularly those of the West Country, ^[30] against London. The Spanish charter of 1577 was confirmed in 1604, and, although of a more democratic character than the original, was the object of a determined attack. West Country demands for freedom of trade in cloth were supported by those of small traders in grain and, particularly, in fish. In 1604 bills for free trade, supported by four representatives from Devon and Cornwall and by others led by Sir Edwin Sandys, formerly a representative of Plympton in Devonshire, constituted one evidence of the attitude of the West Country. Another, in 1605, was an attack on the Spanish charter by Sir George Somers of Lyme Regis. Fishermen were sending fish direct from Newfoundland to Spain, Portugal, and Italy and at prices less by one half than those obtainable by the merchants. Even the company conceded that “if the fishermen persist in trading themselves, at least they make their homeward lading with money, salt or oranges and not in frivolous commodities.” ^[31] Legislation in 1606 granted liberty of trade with Spain, Portugal, and France. Attempts of merchants trading with Spain to secure incorporation in 1619 and 1620 were defeated in turn by western ports ^[32] which drove “a greate, and ample trade into the dominions” of Spain. In 1609 the West Country insisted on a democratic charter for trade with France: that all fishermen should “have liberty to transport and carry their fish into France and the Dominions thereof and to return their monies in any kind of merchandise and bring over the same” ^[33] to England. Correspondingly, the Levant Company encountered difficulties when it attempted to prevent West Country merchants from returning with Levant goods after disposing of their fish in Italy. A navigation proclamation of 1622 which imposed mercantilistic restrictions on shipping was held responsible for a sharp increase in the cost of shipbuilding materials, and concessions were made by the Privy Council which required Eastland (Baltic) commodities to be sold at West Country ports at the same price as in London. The influence of the West Country was also evident in customs regulations. ^[34] A decline in the cloth trade was offset by the increasing importance of exports of Newfoundland fish to Spain. By 1625 the government was forced to yield to the strategic position of the West Country. An attempt of merchants to form a company in 1630 aroused new protests from Dartmouth and Cornwall; and a similar proposal in 1635 brought opposition from Exeter, Plymouth, Dartmouth, Totnes, Barnstaple, Southampton, Poole, Weymouth, and Lyme. The failure of the London and Bristol Company in Newfoundland was followed by the failure of other attempts to control the carrying trade.

The failure of company organization to control West Country trade and the West Country fishing industry led to the substitution of regulations which found an extension in the navigation system. In 1626 an order in council required fish caught by Englishmen in English, Newfoundland, or New England waters to be exported in English ships. Another order in council in 1630 required that this regulation should be enforced; but it was relaxed in 1631 as a result ^[35] of protests from the West Country and was disregarded in subsequent years. Trinity House complained in 1633 that foreign ships were buying fish in Newfoundland for Spain and Italy while English shipping was idle, although fish was apparently shipped to a greater extent in London vessels. West Country insistence on the importance of competition between London and foreign purchasers and on freedom of the fishery in Newfoundland culminated in 1634 in the granting of the first Western Charter, as it is known, in which freedom of the fishery was guaranteed. The regulations embodied in its letters patent, issued on February 10, 1634, stated that

The difficulties involved in a free fishery, as pointed out by the planters, were recognized, however, and the regulations followed closely those published under the hand of John Guy; ^[37] but they were more stringent in dealing with stealing of bait or other property, the rights of admirals, the disposal of ballast, the protection of stages, and the obliteration of owners’ marks on boats. No one was allowed to use the bark of trees “either for the seelinge of shippes houldes, or for roomes on shoare, or for any other uses, except for the coveringe of the roofes for cookeroomes to dress their meate in, and those roomes not to extend above sixteene foote in length at most.” Anchoring or otherwise interfering with the hauling “of seanes for baite in places accustomed thereunto” was penalized as was also the stealing of bait from nets or boats; and no person was permitted to set up taverns to sell “wine, beer or stronge waters, cyder or tobacco to entertayne the ffishermen.” Provision was likewise made for worship on Sundays. In order that penalties should be speedily enforced, authority was vested in the mayors of Southampton, Weymouth, Melcombe-Regis, Lyme, Plymouth, Dartmouth, Eastlowe, Ffoye (Fowey), and Barnestaple, and in the vice-admirals of the counties of Southampton, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. ^[38]

The Western Charter of 1634 was a compromise with the fishing interests, and it was followed by further efforts on the part of London interests to secure control over the carrying trade and plantations by the grant of a patent in 1637 to Sir David Kirke. West Country fishermen were guaranteed ample supplies of shipping ^[39] but Kirke was permitted to tax all foreigners “making fish” in Newfoundland five fish out of every hundred, and 5 per cent of the oil. He could demand five fish out of every hundred and twenty in the case of foreign sack ships. The grant protected the fishermen by stating that the patentee

The right of free fishing was elaborately protected.

Under this patent a settlement was formed at Ferryland in 1638, and Sir David Kirke exacted a yearly license fee from English fishermen in the vicinity. The chief profits arose, however, from the sale of cargoes sent out from London, the purchase of fish, and the export of cargoes of dried cod to southern Europe. ^[41] But the West Country fishermen complained of the aggressiveness of Kirke and, in 1651, finally succeeded in securing his recall to England. ^[42] The victory of the fishermen over monopoly was again complete.

The compromise in the Charter of 1634 and the agreements under Kirke’s patent of 1637, which emerged from the struggle between the fishing interests, the settlements, and the carrying trade, were supplemented by navigation legislation designed to defeat the Dutch. ^[43] The building of faster ships in the latter part of the sixteenth century and the peace with Spain in 1609 had enabled them to dominate Spanish and Mediterranean shipping. In 1612 the pirate Easton captured a great Flemish ship in Newfoundland valued at a thousand pounds. In spite of proclamations in 1615 and 1622 demanding the enforcement of acts requiring all English commodities to be exported directly to the country where they were consumed and foreign commodities to be imported directly from their place of production, Dutch shipping increased. A memorandum of about 1640 protested against the presence in Newfoundland of Dutch traders who purchased fish “in great abundance to the hurt of English merchants, taking the prime of the market.” Difficulties led eventually to the Navigation Acts of 1650 and 1651, and the outbreak of war with Holland.

The position of the English fishing ships in Newfoundland was strengthened throughout the first half of the century in spite of numerous vicissitudes.

According to Mason “the fish and traine in one harbour called Sainct Johns is yearly in the summer worth 17 or 18 thousand pounds.” ^[45] After living in Newfoundland from 1615 to 1621 he estimated that there were 300 English ships and 3,000 seamen, and 20,000 employed in England. A temporary decline followed the difficulties with pirates and the early settlements, and in 1621 the fishery was apparently a failure. By 1625 piracy had been suppressed and the number of Plymouth and Dartmouth ships sent out increased from 2 or 3 a year to 60 or 80. It was the same with other ports such as Barnstaple and Topsham. In 1634 it was stated that 27,000 tons of shipping and, in spite of an impressment of “splitters” by the navy, 18,680 men were regularly engaged in the Newfoundland fishery, ^[46] and that it brought in a gross income of £178,880. According to one estimate, the total number of ships had increased to about 500 in 1637. Another outbreak ^[47] of piracy “whereby Bristol and the western ports that cannot have so great shipping as London, are beaten out of trade and fishing” (1640) may have caused a decline as did the Civil War in England. The total was given as less than 200 sail in 1652.

In the territory between Cape Bonavista and Trepassey, where the English were in sole possession, there were about 500 permanent residents, including 350 women and children, scattered between 30 and 40 settlements of which St. John’s, Bonavista, and Conception were the most important. In addition, about 1,000 boatmen and servants were employed for short periods. The settlers took, roughly, one third of the catch, and were outnumbered three to one by English fishermen during the summer. Settlements had developed in spite of the colonization companies rather than because of them. The companies were not a financial success, this being due to the hostility of the fishermen, lack of experience on the part of the company managers, and difficulties in adjusting colonization to the fishing industry. By the middle of the century the dominance of the West Country fishermen had been established.

NEW ENGLAND

The rapid growth of the English fishery in Newfoundland and the opening of the Spanish market early in the seventeenth century were accompanied by an expansion to new areas, and particularly to the rich fishing grounds of the Gulf of Maine and New England. In March, 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold, who made a voyage to New England shores to trade and to search for sassafras, reported that “in the moneths of March, April and May, there is upon this coast, better fishing, and in as great plentie, as in Newfoundland. . . . And, besides, the places . . . were but in seven faddome water and within less than a league of the shore; where, in New-found-land they fish in fortie or fiftie fadome water and farre off.” ^[48] As a result of his favorable reports Martin Pring was sent out by Bristol merchants with two vessels in 1603, and returned with similar reports. “Wee found,” he wrote, “an excellent fishing for cod which are better than those of New-found-land and withall we saw good and rockie ground fit to drie them upon.” ^[49] George Waymouth, after a visit to the Maine coast, wrote, in his published account, of prospects

In the expedition ^[51] supported by Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Sir John Popham in 1607-8 cod were caught on the Sable Island Bank “very great and large fyshe, bigger and larger fyshe than that wch coms from the bancke of the New Found land; hear we myght have loaden our shipe in lesse time than a month.” Near La Have “we took great stor of cod fyshes the bigeste and largest that I ever saw or any man in our ship.” Although the expedition failed to establish a colony, its failure provided the seeds of the fishing industry. “There was no more speech of setling any other plantation in those parts for a long time after: only Sir Francis Popham having the ships and provisions, which remayned of the Company and supplying what was necessary for his purpose, sent divers times to the coasts for trade and fishing.” ^[52] Captain John Smith went with four merchants from London to Monhegan Island in 1614 for whales; but failing in this took furs, train oil, and core fish to England. The best of 7,000 core (green) fish was sold for £5 per hundred and the remainder for between £3 and 50 shillings. The dry fish (40,000) were sold in Malaga at 40 reals (20 shillings) per quintal, 100 fish being held to make 2½ quintals. ^[53] He met one of Sir Francis Popham’s ships “having many yeares used onely that porte.” In 1616 Captain John Smith reported four or five sail leaving Plymouth and as many leaving London. Expeditions sent back ships loaded with dry fish for Spain, the Canaries, and Bilbao, and other ships with furs, train oil, and green fish for England. In 1619 a 200-ton ship left Plymouth and earned for each sailor £16 10s. for seven months’ labor. The following year three ships reported £20 a share. ^[54] In 1621 the number of ships for New England increased to 10, in 1622 to 37, in 1623 to 40, ^[55] and in 1624 to 50. Piracy and difficulties between the fishing interests and the company “in regard that the Newfoundland fishing hath fayled of late years” compelled fishermen to turn to New England.

The fishing industry in New England prosecuted by West Country fishermen was, as in Newfoundland, subject to difficulties with monopolies. ^[56] The struggle moved to the mainland. In 1620 Sir Ferdinando Gorges obtained a charter covering the territory between the parallels of 40° and 48°. There no one was allowed to visit the coast without obtaining a license from the New England Council, and fishermen were forbidden to land or procure wood to build stages on which to dry their fish. Each fishing vessel was required to secure a license. ^[57] When John Mason returned to England from Newfoundland in 1621 he was consulted by Sir William Alexander regarding the settlement in Nova Scotia and secured grants of land through Gorges in New England. In the struggle of the colonizers with the fishermen, Captain Francis West was dispatched in 1622 to enforce the regulations, ^[58] but found that “he could doe no good of them; for they were to stronge for him and he found ye fisher men to be stuberne fellows.” The following year licenses were granted to five ships from Plymouth, and two from Dartmouth were seized. Gorges’ charter was attacked by Sir Edwin Sandys ^[59] and others in support of a bill for “freer liberty of fishing,” partly on the ground that expansion and increased sales in Spain would increase imports of specie to England. It was an industry “of 200 ships and 10,000 men, 8,000 marryners, and bringes in great store of bullion from Spaine.” ^[60] “It is a gaine and sewerly retournes money, ex lege Hispania.” ^[61] Sandys took an active part in the Virginia Company. He made plans to produce salt for the fishery which were opposed to Gorges’ monopoly, and whereas Sandys formerly had opposed the interests of the West Country fishermen, because of his interest in the Spanish company, he now supported them. By insisting on expanding the New England fishery ^[62] he brought out the importance of specie imports and the danger that lay in importing tobacco from European countries.

In 1627 tobacco imports from Spain were excluded and a monopoly was conceded to Virginia.

But in spite of determined protests by representatives of the Virginia Company, of Parliament, and of West Country interests, Gorges continued to hold his charter. ^[64] “Notwithstanding the fishing ships made such good returnes, at last it [New England] was ingrossed by twenty pattenties, that divided my map into twenty parts and cast lots for their shares.” ^[65] Captain John Smith charged that as a result of the impositions of the New England Council the fishery “hath ever since beene little frequented to any purpose.” Settlements were gradually established and the fishery developed along lines different from those of Newfoundland. Monopoly restricted West Country fishing in New England, but helped in the settlement of the country and in the local fishery which eventually destroyed monopoly control. It was in part the possibilities of the industry that attracted the Pilgrims to Plymouth. They secured assistance from the fishermen at Monhegan, ^[66] but the settlements established at Weymouth by Weston, an English fishing merchant, and at Cape Ann by “the Dorchester Company” ended in failure. The experience gained in these failures led to success at Salem after 1628. By 1630 the settlements were growing and were carrying on the fisheries not only there but also in the vicinity of the Island of Monhegan, on the mainland, ^[67] and eastward to Penobscot Bay. Fishing stations were established at Dorchester, Marblehead, and Scituate by 1633, and the industry ^[68] had by 1635 begun to recover from such handicaps as the lack of capital, small numbers, the distances between settlements, and the uncertain returns. In 1639 vessels participating in the fishery were made exempt from taxation for seven years. Men were dispatched from Boston to engage in the walrus and seal fishing on Sable Island, and in 1645 vessels went to Bay Bulls in Newfoundland.

The increase of settlements was accompanied by the development of a winter fishery, especially after 1630.

Markets in the West Indies and South America

A market for poor grades of fish emerged with the growth of slavery in Virginia and more tropical regions. The monopoly of the English tobacco market which Virginia obtained led to attempts to form plantations in Guiana and the West Indies. The failures of Guiana plantations preceded the success which crowned the efforts of colonists in the West Indies. In 1623 St. Christopher (St. Kitts) was settled, and in 1629 this island and Barbados were exporting tobacco to England. ^[70] By 1630 colonists had also been settled in Nevis, and by the middle of the decade colonies had been planted in Antigua and Montserrat. The West Indies, especially Barbados and St. Christopher, shared with the northern colonies the marked emigration from England to the New World after 1630. ^[71] The decline of Spain was evident in the foothold which had been obtained by England and other countries in the West Indies. By 1650 England was in possession of several important islands that were chiefly engaged in the production of tobacco. ^[72]

The disappearance of exports of tobacco from Spain was made good by exports of sugar, both from Spain and from the Azores, Madeira, and Brazil. The separation of Spain and Portugal in 1640 was followed in 1642 by a treaty between England and Portugal in which greater freedom was conceded to England in Africa and the East Indies. English ships became increasingly important in the Brazil trade; and in 1654, after the disruption due to the Civil War, a treaty made possible an English trade with Brazil that included everything but fish, wine, oil, and Brazil wood, which remained under the control of the Brazil Company. The decline of the Spanish and Portuguese fishery in Newfoundland was also accompanied by an increase in exports of English fish not only to Portugal but also to Brazil via Portugal. The increase in the sugar trade with Spain and Portugal in turn led England to encourage the production of sugar in the British West Indies. “Men are so intent upon planting sugar that they had rather buy foode at very deare rates than produce it by labour, so infinite is the profitt of sugar workes after once accomplished.” ^[73]

Not only was there a market in Spain for the product of the winter fishery and a return of specie because of the check to imports of tobacco from Spain, but the production of tobacco and sugar in Virginia and the West Indies also provided a market for poorer grades of fish. Trade began in a small way between New England and Virginia, and from Virginia to Barbados. In 1635 a Dutch ship brought tobacco and 140 tons of salt from St. Christopher to Boston. ^[74] On February 26, 1638, a vessel which left Salem seven months before brought back cotton, tobacco, and negroes from the Isle of Providence and salt from the Tortugas. ^[75] On August 27, 1639, a vessel arrived from the West Indies with indigo and sugar and returned with commodities from New England. ^[76] Trade expanded rapidly and with it shipping and shipbuilding. ^[77] In 1641 a ship of 300 tons was built at Salem and one of 160 tons at Boston; and in the same year 300,000 dry fish were sent to market. ^[78] In 1642 a Dutch ship arrived with salt from the West Indies and took on a cargo of planks and pipe staves; and a small vessel arrived from the Madeiras and returned with a cargo of pipe staves and other products. ^[79] In March, 1643, a Boston-built ship returned from a voyage to Fayal where it had sold pipe staves and fish, bought wine and sugar, sailed for St. Christopher, and there exchanged some of the wine for cotton, tobacco, and iron. Small vessels were going to the West Indies for cotton, and larger ships were taking clapboards, pipe staves, fish, and other products to the Canaries. On December 3, 1644, a Boston ship of 60 tons arrived from Palma Island in the Canaries with wine, pitch, sugar, and gum. The Trial, 160 tons, built in Boston, left in March of the same year for Bilbao and Malaga with fish, and returned with wine, fruit, oil, iron, and coal. In 1645 a ship returned after taking a load of pipe staves to the Canaries, slaves from the Cape Verde Islands, and wine, sugar, salt, and tobacco from Barbados. In addition to this tropical trade, New England vessels were leaving for England and Holland with wheat, rye, and furs in return for linen, woolens, shoes, stockings, and dry goods. The difficulty of obtaining furs to send to England had encouraged the opening of trade with the West Indies; and cattle and provisions were exported in return for sugar, cotton, tobacco, and indigo, which were in turn exported to England in exchange for English goods. By 1650 trade was being carried on with Virginia, Barbados, England, Portugal, Spain, Holland, and France. ^[80]

Dry fish were sent from fishing areas to Boston, and from thence the merchantable grades were dispatched to Lisbon, Bilbao, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Toulon, and other French ports, the refuse grades going to the West Indies. Supplies were purchased from the southern colonies. Relations between Newfoundland and New England were closely interwoven. Sack ships carried freight and passengers to New England, ^[81] and merchants in the Newfoundland fishery were engaged in the New England trade and fishery. New England traders sold corn and cattle in Newfoundland, purchased fish and oil, and carried back to New England fishermen brought out from the West Country. ^[82] The base of supplies for Newfoundland was beginning to shift from England to New England. The growth of the settlements in New England and settlement difficulties in Newfoundland left the fishing ships in control of Newfoundland. The 50 vessels which had sailed from the West Country to New England in 1624 had dwindled to 15 in 1637. The outbreak of civil war in England weakened West Country fishermen in New England and hastened the growth of self-sufficiency and economic organization. ^[83] The cessation of immigration and a collapse of prices necessitated a development of trade.

In the Newfoundland trade, division within the industry complicated its problems. The importance of competition in the carrying trade, high interest rates, and the character of the financial support tended to stress the value of short-term credit and rapid turnover, and to strengthen the opposition of the fishing interests to the attempts of the carrying trade to gain control through either monopolies or regulations. Seasonal limitations in Newfoundland and agricultural difficulties militated against the establishing of settlements, whereas in New England the possibility of developing the winter fishery and wider markets made for their increase. Settlers were brought out to New England, and ballast to Newfoundland. The problem of regulating ballast thrown into its harbors could be contrasted with the growth of settlements in New England. Ships carried settlers, “who for their passage will spare the charge of double manning their ships, which they must doe in Newfoundland to get their fraught [freight]; but one third part of that companie are onely but proper to serve a stage, carry a barrow and turne poor john.”

Commercialism based on the fishing industry in the West Country restricted settlements in Newfoundland, and commercialism based on the fishing industry in New England made for settlements. The latter meant the expansion of the fishery, of shipbuilding, and of trade. The struggle against monopoly was less acute but eventually effective. Long-term credit ^[84] became more important with the growth of settlements, and companies were more efficient organizations to provide it. Metropolitan organizations, centered in London, Bristol, or elsewhere, were less of a failure on the mainland than in Newfoundland. On the other hand, the expansion of the fishery in New England implied independent organization; and the growing compromises in Newfoundland between the shipping interests of metropolitan centers, such as London, and the West Country fishing interests called for an increasingly close relationship among English activities. The effective representation of London and West Country interests contrasted sharply with the conflict between the widely separated ports of France, inherent in the scattered regions in which the French prosecuted the fishery in general and the relatively more important green fishery.

FRENCH, SPANISH, AND PORTUGUESE FISHERIES

The expansion of the French fishing industry to the north and to the mainland on the south was hastened by the contraction of their Newfoundland fishing grounds as a result of English aggression. ^[85] The patent to Sir David Kirke in 1637, as we have seen, entitled him to impose a tax on foreigners fishing, drying, or purchasing fish in Newfoundland, but an attempt to collect it along the southern coast in 1639 was only partially successful. ^[86]

The French fishery on the south coast was responsive to the demands of the Spanish market. Champlain took note of the fishery at Placentia, Trepassey, and St. Pierre, “where many vessels go to fish and where they dry the fish.” About 1613, 30 ships from St. Jean de Luz brought 16,000 cargas (about 64,000 bushels) of codfish to Passages and 150 cargas of oil to Bilbao. Partly as a result of the profitable character of Spanish trade, Sibiburo was reported as having grown from 30 houses to 500 between 1600 and 1630. In the early ’forties the French Basque region of Bayonne had a fleet of 60 ships which employed 3,000 seamen and annually took from Spain 400,000 ducats of silver. It was significant that by 1650 San Sebastian had become an important financial center, as indicated by its loans to St. Jean de Luz. ^[87]

In the Petit Nord and on the Labrador the migration of ships from the Avalon Peninsula was in part a source of irregularities. On October 10, 1610, the town of St. Malo asked permission to send two armed boats to make war on the Indians who had killed “a number of shipmasters and sailors while fishing for cod.” ^[88] Letters patent in 1615 prohibited the tearing down of staging in Newfoundland. An arrêt ^[89] issued at Rennes, July 31, 1640, provided that the first arrival at the harbor called Le Havre du Petit Maître (Petty Master’s) was entitled to first choice of the harbor and ground necessary for his fishery. After he had made his choice other masters were entitled to make their selections in the order of their arrival. In 1647 a vessel was dispatched at the expense of St. Malo and Binic to protect 4,000 men engaged in the fishery between Dégrat and Cape St. John.

The expansion of Canada was in part a result of the difficulties in Newfoundland. In the financial records of French Channel ports, the name of Canada appears more frequently after the turn of the century and generally in connection with the Mediterranean market. On March 16, 1602, a loan was made to H. Gohorel on the Esperance, 100 tons, G. Dieres master, of 10 écus at 35 per cent if he returned directly to Honfleur, or 40 per cent if he returned by way of Spain. Dieres himself received a loan on April 2 of 25 livres at 40 per cent to go to Canada, return to La Rochelle and Bordeaux and thence home. On December 1, 1604, Jehan Desamaison, master, employed ^[90] P. Gadoys to go to Leghorn and from there to Canada. On February 9, 1607, the same Jehan Desamaison borrowed 100 livres from P. du Sausay (who married the widow of Chauvin) to go to Leghorn with a cargo of wheat, thence to Spain for salt, and finally to Canada or Newfoundland for cod. On February 12, Dieres, master of the Esperance, borrowed money to undertake a voyage to “Malleque” (Malaga) or Cartagena and thence to Canada to fish for cod. The rate of interest was given as 27 per cent in a document of April 4, 1608, and as 25 per cent in one of March 20, 1609, and was apparently declining with the result that capitalists ^[91] had become more important; individual names such as Andrieu and Du Sausay appeared more frequently, and it became possible to undertake more extensive expeditions to the mainland and to the Mediterranean. By 1604 the fishery was carried on at Cape Breton, especially Ingonish and Louisburg, and Canso, but not beyond Mahone Bay, Sambro, and Port Mouton, although Gosnold ^[92] reported in 1602 that Basques or French from St. Jean de Luz had been trading along the coast of Maine. At Canso, “fishing for both green and dry fish is here carried on.” ^[93] In 1603 Champlain probably followed the usual route. Leaving Honfleur on March 15 he proceeded to Gaspé, Codfish Bay, and Isle Percée, where there was both green and dry fishing, and on August 24 he returned from Gaspé to Havre de Grace. Smaller vessels were able to avoid the ice which blocked Cabot Strait until the end of May by going through the Gut of Canso, ^[94] but the late season was a handicap. An arrival at Tadoussac on May 19, 1609, was said to have been the earliest in sixty years. Chauvin had large interests in the fishing industry and in the company of 1599 which had established a post at Tadoussac. Protests from other fishing interests led in 1603 to the inclusion in this company of merchants of Rouen and St. Malo, and, in 1604, of La Rochelle and St. Jean de Luz. On Champlain’s expedition of 1604 a vessel was found trading in furs at Liverpool Bay on May 12, and Basque vessels were seized at Canso for encroaching on the company’s trading privileges. ^[95] In 1606 the company learned of several vessels about Cape Breton which were engaged in the fur trade. With the extensive fishing industry, monopoly of the fur trade proved difficult to enforce; and according to Champlain the hostility of the Basques and Bretons was responsible for the difficulties of the company in 1607 and 1608. Although by 1607 the experiment of colonization in Acadia had failed, the Jonas which brought back the colonists ^[96] left Canso with 100,000 cod, green and dry. It sailed on September 3 and arrived at St. Malo the end of the month.

The disappearance of the company, the revival of competition, and attacks by the English in Newfoundland probably contributed to the wider dispersal of fishing vessels. On August 13, 1609, the first year of competition, Champlain found a number of vessels catching and curing fish at Isle Percée. The fishery was divided chiefly between the Normans and the French Basques, ^[97] but Spanish Basque vessels were noted at Tadoussac. ^[98] In 1611 men from St. Malo and La Rochelle were engaged in trading at Port Royal, ^[99] and in 1613 two ships from St. Malo were reported near Port Mouton. In the same year Poutrincourt had a magazine of salt on Long Island in the Bay of Fundy, but it was looted by the English. When Captain John Smith arrived on the coast of Maine in 1614 he was obliged to meet competition ^[100] from French ships that had already established themselves there. The importance of the fishery had seriously affected the fortunes of the monopoly in the fur trade, and it was not until 1613 that Champlain succeeded in arranging an association which limited the number of vessels to three from Rouen and one from La Rochelle. Merchants of St. Malo protested against their exclusion and at the end of the season they also were included. ^[101] In 1614 the new company shares were divided between Rouen, St. Malo, and La Rochelle; but the latter failed to participate. A reorganization in 1620 added more shareholders from Rouen. But, while monopoly had established itself in the fur trade of the St. Lawrence Valley, the difficulties of competition in the fishing industry of the maritime region ^[102] proved insuperable.

The industry was competitive because of the difference of interest between the various French ports as well as between the French and the English. In 1613 Captain Samuel Argall from Virginia destroyed the French settlements in Acadia and took the first steps in the developments which gradually narrowed the range of the French fishery. In 1622 and 1623 Sir William Alexander dispatched vessels to establish a settlement in Nova Scotia under a charter granted to him, but it came to little. In the latter year his vessel sailed along the Acadian coast to Port Mouton ^[103] where it met a French captain who “in a very short time had made a great voyage, for though he had furnished one ship away with a great number of fishes there were neere so many ready as to loade himself and others.” In 1629 Sir William Alexander’s squadron discovered three French ships at anchor off the coast of Cape Breton, one of which was a barque of 60 tons, probably the Marie of St. Jean de Luz. On August 26, the French captain Daniel from Dieppe found a Bordeaux vessel anchored in Baleine Cove. A final attempt to include the maritime area under monopoly control by the formation, in 1627, of the Company of New France ^[104] with its headquarters in Paris was responsible for a temporary success gained by Alexander. The charter of the company was marked by distinct centralizing features ^[105] to offset the decentralizing tendencies of the fishing regions. Among those excluded by the French Company were the Kirkes of Dieppe; and their coöperation with the English, and later with Alexander, in capturing Quebec and holding it until 1632 was a further indication of the failure to control the fishing regions by monopoly, particularly with the ever-present danger of conflict with the English. ^[106] Sir David Kirke was, for his part, destined to fail in his ambitions to maintain a monopoly in New France, as later he was to fail, as we have seen, in Newfoundland.

The difficulties met by monopoly in the Maritimes became evident in the bitter contest between the French occupants. In 1633 Denys, in partnership with Razilly and a merchant of Auray, established a depot for the sedentary fishery at Port Rossignol near Liverpool. A shipload of fish was sold in Brittany under favorable conditions; but a larger venture in a 200-ton ship and attempts to export to Oporto failed because of difficulties between Spain and France in 1634-35. ^[107] Denys established a post at Miscou in 1645, but this was seized two years later by D’Aulnay. The vicissitudes of the Denys venture and of other French settlements were a result of the close relationship between the fur trade and the fishery in the maritime regions, of inherent difficulties in the fishery which made monopolies impossible, and of the disappearance of limited markets upon the outbreak of war.

The growth of settlements in Nova Scotia was consequently slight. Denys’s description of the coast line, written about 1669 from the experience of a long stay in the region, indicated points of development. De Lomeron was noted as the first place along the coast which offered good shelter and abundant cod close to shore, the fish coming in earlier than anywhere else; but an establishment was destroyed by the English about 1628. Seals were taken at Seal Islands, and Cape Sable provided a good harbor and an abundant cod fishery. La Tour had a fort at Barrington Bay. Negro Harbour had an excellent fishery, but Denys reported never having seen a ship there. He had seen ships at Port Mouton where the fish were taken from two to two and one half leagues from shore and dried in an unsatisfactory way on hurdles (flakes) “on which one is obliged to dry the fish when there occur at the place of the fishery only sand and grass.” Razilly occupied an establishment at La Have, but his death in 1635 was followed by its disappearance. At Prospect men often engaged in the fishery and they could dry the cod on the rocks. The beginnings of a settlement were made at St. Marys River some time after 1650. Canso was an organized and well-known fishing area. Both harbors had gravel beaches, but flakes were also necessary. The “admiral,” or first arrival, chose the better harbor, leaving the other for the “vice-admiral.” At Green, Goose, and Harbor Islands one or two vessels anchored and dried the fish on the islands. At Chedabucto Harbor (Guysborough), Denys had established a sedentary fishery but as a result of attacks had been forced to move to St. Peters in Cape Breton. The Michaux Islands provided a good fishery and Louisburg was a famous locality with a good harbor and good fishing. Farillon was a point at which the Bretons had fished from an early period and had an excellent fishery. The harbor of St. Annes provided good shelter. Ingonish (Niganiche), according to Denys, was one of the first points to be occupied because “the fishing there is good and early.” Cape North was suitable for one vessel to “make fish.” At Cheticamp, cod were abundant but shelter was lacking. Along the coast of Cape Breton “that which makes it valued are the ports and roadsteads which the ships use to make their fishery. Mackerel and herring are very abundant around the island and the fishermen make their boitte or bait of them for catching the cod, which is very fond of them.” ^[108]

In the Gulf, the Magdalen Islands provided walrus, seals, and good fishing for cod. Fishing vessels on their way through Cabot Strait stopped at Bird Island for eggs and birds. Prince Edward Island was generally neglected because of the difficulty of getting into the harbors, although Denys said that he had seen three large Basque vessels at Cascumpecque Bay. At Miscou, vessels were afforded valuable protection. “I have seen as many as five or six ships here making their fishery. They make flakes upon this point of sand, for there is no gravel on it.” The Caraquet Islands provided shelter for vessels, good fishing, and gravel beaches, but “flakes” were also needed. Vessels anchored at Paspebiac, which was a very important fishing center where cod were generally to be found even when they failed at Bonaventure Point. Fish were dried on the gravel beach. Along the coast to Isle Percée cod were abundant but shelter was not adequate. At the latter point the Normans left their ships and went out to the Orphan Banks where the fish were as large as those on the Grand Banks and were put down green. This fishery served as the point of contact by which the Normans became interested in the fur trade of the St. Lawrence. Denys had seen eleven vessels there loaded with fish. Capelin were plentiful for bait and, coming on shore, attracted the cod. Pebbles were spread on the beach on which fish could be dried and flakes were set up on the level meadows. The fir trees had been cut down for some distance to make stages, and building had become expensive. The fishermen had made gardens and planted cabbages, peas, and beans. Bonaventure Island, although possessed of an excellent fishery, had a gravel beach suitable for only one vessel; and the remainder were forced to build flakes to which it was necessary to make a road and carry the fish up a hill. Denys reported having seen three vessels in the cove. At Gaspé fishing vessels were able to anchor and there was a gravel beach sufficient for two large vessels. When the fishing failed at this point the men went to Farillon to make a “dégrat.” The coast suffered from a lack of adequate shelter, drying facilities, and fish. Localities with an abundance of fish were of little value without harbors. The scarcity of gravel beaches and the heavy expenditure of effort in erecting flakes were additional handicaps. The more favorable localities had consequently a high rental value and were subject to conflict under the “admiral” rule, and the extent of the fishery was limited.

According to Denys, those principally engaged in the French dry fishery were Basques, men from La Rochelle and its adjoining islands of Ré and Oleron, and also fishermen of Brittany and Bordeaux, and they had a total of from 100 to 150 vessels. Less salt by half was needed than was called for by the bank fishery. For a 200-ton ship engaged in the dry fishery about 50 men were required, with provisions for eight or nine months, and the catch would average 200,000 fish. Generally the skill they displayed varied directly with the distance of their home ports from Paris and inversely with their distance from Spain and the Mediterranean, the chief markets for dried fish. “The Basques are the most skilled. Those of La Rochelle have the first rank after them and the Islanders who are in the vicinity, then the Bourdelois and then the Bretons.” The business agreements made were based in part on the skill of the fishermen.

The men from La Rochelle were less efficient. They were not so well equipped; for example, the Basques carried a duplicate outfit of clothing, so that in case of rain one suit could be left to dry. Instead of the precise division based on the estimated cargo of the ship, the men of La Rochelle were given one quarter of the fish. The crew shared equally, but 100 écus (500 livres) were provided in addition for each boat and its five men, which sum was divided between them in proportion to their worth. The ships from Bordeaux gave one third of the cargo to the crew, who agreed among themselves as to the disposal of their share. The captain decided on the arrangements of the crew, and he hired boys by direct payment and took their shares. The extent of the wage system varied inversely with the skill of the fishermen.

The dry fishery was carried on chiefly by the ports more closely associated with the Bay of Biscay and the green fishery by the Channel ports. Denys claimed that it gained at the expense of the green fishery, and larger numbers of vessels from the Channel ports became engaged in it. The number of French vessels fishing on the Banks was estimated by him at from 200 to 250. A 200-ton ship employing 25 men would produce 45,000 to 50,000 fish. The great proportion were taken by Norman fishermen from Honfleur, Dieppe, Boulogne, and Calais; also by men from Brittany, Olonne, and the country of Aulnes; and three quarters were sold in Paris. In 1603 it was estimated ^[109] that 80 vessels left Havre alone for the Banks, although some of them were probably engaged in the dry fishery. In 1617 St. Malo was reported to have sent 120 vessels to the Banks and the harbors, ^[110] chiefly in the Petit Nord. In 1611 the French were held to have 600 ships; ^[111] but in 1615 Whitbourne’s estimate was 400, including those of the French Basques and the Portuguese and those going to Canada. Vaughan ^[112] put the total at from 200 to 300 ships other than English in Newfoundland; and Hayman ^[113] in 1630 estimated that there were 400 French ships on the Banks. Fishermen made voyages “into these countries in search of cod-fish wherewith they feed nearly all Europe and supply all sea-going vessels.” ^[114]

The expansion of the French to the more distant regions was hindered by the dominant importance of the bank fishery in the domestic market. The technique of the green fishery involved possibilities of development over a wide area without the handicap of climate, whereas the dry fishery tended to be restricted to definite areas like the Petit Nord and select portions of the mainland such as Canso, Cape Breton, and Gaspé. The French were forced to concentrate on the more distant restricted areas in their expansion of the dry fishery. Competition from the English became increasingly effective; New England was a competitor at Bilbao, and Newfoundland in the Mediterranean.

Vessels extended their activities to the coast of Nova Scotia and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and became engaged in the fur trade for the home market and the dry fishery for those of Spain and the Mediterranean. The financial structure that had been established in order to send ships to the Banks early in the year, and have them return without delay with green fish for the Paris market, was further broadened to aid both in the export of dry fish and other products to the Mediterranean and in the penetration to the Gaspé fishing grounds, which admitted of the production of both dry and green fish. When vessels sailed to Spain, and then to Newfoundland and Canada for furs and dry and green fish, there was a more complete occupation of the land areas throughout the year. The later arrival of vessels facilitated the profitable development of the Gulf fishery and the fur trade. The superiority of the Channel ports in the fur trade was related to the importance of the Paris market, to the increasing complexity of the fishing industry as conducted from these ports, and to the profits of the green fishery as conducted on the Banks. The decline of the Spanish fishery was responsible, with the French as with the English, for the development of a three-cornered trade. The French brought green and dry fish to Honfleur and the Channel ports, dry fish to the Mediterranean, solar salt from Spanish or French ports, and French provisions and supplies to the New World; whereas the English took dry fish from Newfoundland to Spain and the Mediterranean, returned with salt and other products to England, and then carried supplies and provisions from England to Newfoundland. Paris was the important market for furs and green fish, and Spain and the Mediterranean for dry fish.

The expansion of the fishery to the Gulf and along the coast led to contacts with the Indians and the development of the fur trade. This meant at first exporting trading goods of small bulk but, to the Indians, of great value. These goods served to round out the outward-bound cargo of fishing vessels; and the highly valuable small-bulk furs could be easily carried with the cargo of fish returning to Europe. With the expansion of the fur trade, the increasing demand for diversified products contributed to the increasing complexity of trade in relation to fishing. The fur trade developed in close connection with both green and dry fishing, as prosecuted by vessels from the Channel ports, and in response to the metropolitan demands of Paris.

The development of the fur trade and the characteristics of this trade provided a setting for the development of control by company organization and later by the state. The success of monopoly in the fur trade of the continent was in sharp contrast with the struggle against it in the fishing industry. The concession to De la Roche and its numerous successors in the maritime regions failed, while in the fur trade monopoly struck deeper roots. The atomistic, or small-unit, commercialism of the fishing industry was entrenched in a century of development. England was less handicapped because of her relative freedom from the friction between the demands of such widely different interests as the fur trade and the fishing industry. She was compelled to divide concessions over an extended Atlantic seaboard in which separate areas involved separate problems; but from Newfoundland to New England she was forced to concentrate on the fishing industry. The success of the atomistic commercialism of the West Country in Newfoundland and in England was partly a result of the retreat of company organization to New England and the mainland. In New England commercialism was less conspicuously successful in the beginning, but eventually triumphed. The fishing industry meant conditions of cumulative corrosiveness which destroyed company control of trade. ^[115] The Navigation Acts, the colonial system, and the increasing use of treaties emerged in the place of the company.

The Portuguese and Spanish fisheries declined as the English and French expanded. The Anglo-Spanish treaty of 1604, which made it permissible to import fish into Spain, recognized the marketing advantages of the English, and their aggressiveness in Newfoundland and New England weakened the position of competitors. The Portuguese, like the French, suffered severely from English piracy and confusion in Newfoundland. ^[116] In 1615 Whitbourne wrote that “sundry Portugall ships have also come thither purposely to loade fish from the English and have given them a good price for the same and sailed from thence with it to Brasile where that kinde of fish is in great request and they have made great profit thereby.” It was probably difficult, however, to compete with traders carrying fish from England or Portugal.

The Spanish fishery declined in spite of numerous attempts to aid in its recovery. ^[117] In 1625 San Sebastian was said to have 41 ships with 295 shallops and 1,475 men engaged in the fishery; but by the end of the first half century the decline had been marked. The increase in prices incidental to the importation of specie in Spain continued to be a powerful factor, weakening Spanish industry and leading to the growth of trade from France and England. Trade with Spain hastened the development of the dry fishery in the New World, the beginning of English settlements in Newfoundland and New England, and of those of the French in Acadia and New France.

The elimination of the Spanish and the Portuguese left the fishery to be divided between the English and the French. By virtue of their reliance on dry fishing and the geographical advantage of distance, the English had succeeded in obtaining a secure hold on the Newfoundland coast from Cape Bonavista to Cape Race, and from this solidly built steppingstone they strode to New England on the mainland. There monopoly control, crushed in Newfoundland, found a scarcely less pleasant resting place. Lord Baltimore moved to Maryland and John Mason to New England; but the fishing industry in New England, if hindered by monopoly as carried on from the West Country, gained by the planting of settlements and by the local fishery which provided a base for New England commercialism. By the end of the first half of the seventeenth century the English had developed an important fishery in these two widely separated areas. In both, and in the fishing regions of New France, control through monopolies was exercised with difficulty and finally disappeared. The fishing interests at home and abroad served as a spearhead in the struggle for freedom of trade beyond the confines of England. In the fifteenth century English fishermen and merchants from Lynn, Hull, and Bristol had ignored Norwegian attempts to control the Iceland fishery from Bergen; in the sixteenth century they had gained the ascendancy over France and Spain in Newfoundland; and in the seventeenth they fought against settlements established by companies in Newfoundland. A monopoly of land trade proved inadequate to control sea trade. The struggle in Newfoundland for the right of free fishing reflected the growing importance of the sea. Commercialism, built on the fishing industry, drove a wedge into monopoly control over external trade as exercised from Great Britain. Hostility to Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s monopoly in Newfoundland was intensified in the struggle against the Newfoundland Company, and was followed by compromises in the case of both the Charter of 1634 and Kirke’s limited rights in 1637. Competition characterized the English and the French fishing industries. It characterized the industries individually and collectively. The breakdown of monopoly control in New France in the fishing regions contributed first to the collapse of the monopoly exercised by the English under Alexander in Nova Scotia, and then in turn to that of Kirke in New France and Newfoundland. An industry prosecuted in small vessels subject to limited control, and from European ports scattered over a wide area divided between French and English and between green and dry fishing, conducted on a profit-sharing basis, and selling to different markets was essentially competitive and sharply divisive.

NEWFOUNDLAND

The decline of Holland and the influence of the Navigation Acts gave support to the English carrying trade and contributed to the expansion of the French fishery. Competition from French fish weakened the West Country and, throughout the period, led to energetic efforts to dominate the trade of Newfoundland. West Country fishing interests, faced with the growing settlements in New England, concentrated on Newfoundland. The Navigation Acts were tempered to meet the demands of West Country interests. An act passed in 1647, which for three years exempted Newfoundland from the advantages of the removal of all duties except excise applying to American plantations, was followed by the Navigation Act of 1651 which forbade imports of fish unless taken by English fishermen and carried in English ships, and exports of fish in other than English ships with English masters and a majority of English in the crews. From 1656 to 1659 the West Country ^[1] was favored by a waiving of this legislation, which permitted the entrance of fish into the Spanish market in foreign bottoms during the war with Spain; and the providing of convoys for ships en route to Spain also favored it. Aliens were allowed to purchase fish in Newfoundland and New England free of duty, and Newfoundland fish in England on the payment of three pence a quintal. An act of 1660 admitted, free of duty, fish caught by Englishmen and brought in English ships, and the Navigation Act of that year permitted the export of salt fish in foreign bottoms. In the same year the duty on salt ^[2] to be used in the fishery was remitted, other materials were exempted, and a stricter observance of Lent ^[3] was required. In 1662 English vessels carrying exports of fish to the Mediterranean were likewise exempted from special regulations. In 1663 the Newfoundland fishery was relieved of all taxes, and duties were imposed on all fish and products imported into the kingdom by foreigners and aliens, ^[4] and in 1667 the importing of fish taken by foreigners was prohibited. Thus, advantages gained by the carrying trade through the Navigation Acts were adapted to meet the peculiar position of the West Country fishing ships in Newfoundland as “a nursery for seamen.” In 15 Chas. II, c. 16, following 2 and 3 Edw. VI, c. 6, it was provided “that no person or persons whatsoever do collect, buy, or cause to be levied, or taken in Newfoundland any toll or other duty of or for any cod or poor john or other fish of English catching.”

In 1652 the appointment as commissioner of John Treworgie, who had been engaged in the fisheries of Maine and Newfoundland, probably followed recommendations intended to check the proprietary interests of Kirke. According to his instructions in 1653 he was “to collect the imposition of fish, due from and paid by strangers, and likewise the imposition of oil for the use of this Commonwealth.” Regulations were repeated regarding ballast stones, the destruction of stages, the limitation of the admiral’s rights, the alteration of marks on property, stealing, the destruction of trees except for cookrooms “not to extend above 30 foote in length at the most” (instead of 16), the hindering of the hauling of seines for nets, the stealing of bait, and the setting up of taverns. Treworgie was instructed to see that no planter was permitted

In spite of encouragement under the Navigation Acts and the support that was given to the West Country, the handicaps due to the Civil War, the wars with the Dutch, and competition from the French were accompanied by a marked decline. These difficulties apparently led to the emergence of the byeboatkeeper who carried on the fishery independently of the fishing ships or the planters. Rules were enacted on January 26, 1661, which practically renewed the Charter of 1634 and reinforced what Rogers has called “the ten commandments of the fisheries.” ^[6] The threat of the byeboatkeeper as a competitor was met by the regulation that

The duty of prosecuting for offenses against these regulations was entrusted to the mayors of Southton (Southampton), Weymouth, Melcombe, Lyme Regis, Plymouth, Dartmouth, Eastlowe, Foye (Fowey), and Barnstaple, and to the vice-admirals of Southton, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. On November 27, 1663, the towns of Dartmouth, Totnes, Plymouth, and Barnstaple, apparently the towns most directly interested, complained that the clause prohibiting the carrying of passengers was being violated and that as a result “the trade is so reduced that men can only be found for a quarter of the ships formerly sent out, whereby both the trade and his Majesty’s service suffer great hurt.” It was held that the enforcement of the clause would increase the number of ships and seamen for the navy, benefit the handicrafts, and stop “the loss through keepers of private boats drawing away able seamen.” ^[8] On December 4, in response to the petition, an order was passed requiring closer observance of the regulations.

A failure of the fishery, the establishment of the French at Placentia in 1662, ^[9] and the raids by the Dutch on St. John’s, Bay Bulls, and Petty Harbor in 1665 ^[10] increased the difficulties of the fishing ships and led to complaints against the byeboatkeepers and settlers. On August 28, 1667, “merchants, owners of ships, and others, inhabitants” of Totnes, Plymouth, Dartmouth, and other places presented petitions, ^[11] and a commission was appointed to examine the whole question. Bristol and London carrying interests urged that the byeboatmen and those who had settled in Newfoundland be given more favorable consideration. In a statement ^[12] of January 8, 1668, they estimated that the revenue arising out of the fishery totaled £40,000 a year and the returns from the trade £300,000; and “the merchants of London, Bristol, Hampton and Weymouth and other parts petitioning and consenting to the settlement and securing of Newfoundland are concerned three-quarter parts in carrying on the fishing-trade.” In 1669 Captain Robert Robinson, ^[13] in a strong case in favor of the establishment of settlements and the extension of government, argued the importance of the fishery for revenue, for seamen, and as a means of resisting the French, urged correction of the abuses incidental to the lack of a resident government, and the necessity of reviving trade, which had sunk from £500,000 to less than one third of that. A small tax of 1 per cent on the fishery, he said, would serve to protect 300 sail and 15,000 seamen. On the other hand the West Country argued that “for many years past few have made 10 per cent on this fishery and last year both Dartmouth and Plymouth lost considerably,” chiefly because of the settlers. They should be removed “so that the trade in provisions etc., now mostly supplied from New England may be carried on by fishing ships from England and the seamen augmented.” If the fishery continued to be carried on by byeboatkeepers and residents under a governor “the trade in a few years will be removed from this kingdom and become as that fishery of New England which at first was maintained from these parts, but is now managed altogether by the inhabitants of New England.” A governor at St. John’s would be of little value in the 48 fishing places along a 300-mile coast line from Bonavista to Trepassey and would mean a heavy tax. ^[14] Further protests were made on December 23, 1670, by the mayors of Exeter, Dartmouth, Plymouth, Lyme Regis, Barnstaple, Weymouth, and Poole that “private boatkeepers still continue to fish in Newfoundland and great number of passengers still go there.” ^[15] Ships “lie by the wall for want of men.”

The success of the West Country protests was evident in the recommendations of March 10, 1671, made by His Majesty’s Council for Foreign Plantations, that the fishery should be protected against the residents, that “masters of ships be required to bring back all seamen, fishermen and others, and none to be suffered to remain in Newfoundland,” and that “the inhabitants of Newfoundland were to be encouraged to go to Jamaica or other foreign plantations.” They recommended that no alien or stranger be allowed to fish between Cape Race and Bonavista, that no resident be allowed to “inhabit or plant within six miles of the shore,” that “no planter or inhabitant . . . do take up or possess any of the stages, cookrooms, etc., beaches or places for taking bait or fishing before the arrival of the fishermen out of England and that they be all provided.” The regulation of 1661 prohibiting the transport of passengers was narrowed. The clause “such as are to plant and do intend to settle there” was omitted, and in its place there was inserted “such as are engaged in the voyage and share, or shares, or hire of the said ship.” No master or owner of any fishing ship was allowed to take more than 60 persons to 100 tons of burden. It was commanded that every fifth man taken out must be a “green man.” The masters and owners were required “to provide in England victuals, and other necessaries (salt only excepted) for the whole voyage, or fishing season, for themselves and companies, and to put the same on shipboard before the going out of port here.” No fishing ship or company was allowed to leave England directly for Newfoundland before March 1, or for Cape Verde Islands and thence to Newfoundland before January 15. It was further ordered “that no fisherman or seaman, carried out as aforesaid, be suffered to remain in Newfoundland in the winter after the fishing voyage or season is ended,” and “that no master of any fishing ship or others do take up or use any stage already built . . . with a less number of men than twenty-five, who are to be of one entire company.” Men were required to leave Newfoundland before the last day of October. ^[16]

These severe regulations against settlements were followed by serious disturbances in 1671 and bitter controversy. In the first year after their introduction Captain Davis of the convoy ship Success arrived at Bay Bulls, and dispatched the first convoy of twenty-three vessels on August 28. He reported that the fishery on the average was poor, yielding only 140 quintals of fish per boat with the exception of Conception Bay ^[17] which yielded over 200. He complained that the West Country men were at fault for various abuses. “The West Country owners at the end of the year send their men to New England to save their passage home, by which fishermen are made scarce, and many serviceable seamen lost. By reason of a late act for turning the planters six miles into the country the chiefest have gone to New England.” Bad years, and losses resulting from the war with the Dutch from 1672 to 1674 strengthened these arguments and others advanced ^[18] by the planters and London interests. West Country representatives urged, however, that the French had practically excluded the English from their domestic markets and that they were competing in foreign markets. New England took “great quantities of large fish, about sixty thousand kintalls a yeare, and by increasing the trade there, bring much detriment to that of Newfoundland”; ships and men had been lost in the wars, especially with Spain; settlers and planters continued to destroy “whatever the adventurers leave yearely behinde,” to take the best places, and to sell brandy and wine to the seamen. Settlements would increase the consumption of products from New England, “the shipping of which country furnish them with French brandy and Madeira wines in exchange for their fish, without depending for any supply from hence.” To limit the establishment of settlements in Newfoundland would indirectly weaken New England. An order in council of May 5, 1675, approved the regulations of 1671 and provided for more rigid enforcement and “that inhabitants be advised to move from the island and future habitation discouraged.” ^[19] The expansion of New England was an argument for limiting the growth of settlements in Newfoundland.

To carry out these regulations Sir John Berry, as commander of the convoy, arrived in Newfoundland on July 11, 1675. He found forty ships in St. John’s Harbor, most of which were going to market. However, he conducted an investigation and protested against regulations which, when laboring men could earn twenty pounds in a summer, would remove them to England and put them on the parish. Instead of finding the planters guilty of destroying the stages, he alleged that three fourths of the admirals and the commanders of 45 vessels were in favor of tearing them down at the end of the season, using them for fuel in their ships, and selling the remainder to sack ships. Seamen were persuaded to stay behind by the fishing vessels, and not by the planters, in order to save the passage money of 30 or 40 shillings. Instead of New England ships selling wine and brandy he found that they had “taken good quantities of those goods from hence, the product of which is shipped in English vessels for a market.” ^[20] He reported that 175 ships with 4,309 men and 688 boats had caught 250 quintals a boat, worth, at 12 shillings a quintal, £103,200; 20 quintals of core fish at 5 shillings per quintal, £3,440; and made 7 hogsheads of train oil a boat worth, at 40 shillings per hogshead, £9,816; or a total of £116,272. And he went on to say that the planters numbered 1,655 men, who used 277 boats and cured 69,250 quintals of merchantable fish, “most of it shipped in English vessels, which with their core fish and oil will amount to £46,813, upwards of one third [of the value] of the fish taken by the merchant adventurers.” ^[21] In spite of these facts the privileges conferred on the West Country men in 1660, in 1671, and in 1675 were reaffirmed on January 27, 1676. ^[22]

Nevertheless, determined protests from John Downing, the planters’ agent, reinforced by Berry’s report, brought temporary relief. The restrictive regulations were suspended in 1677, notwithstanding arguments of West Country merchants in March “that the renewal of the western charter two years ago” had been followed by a revival of trade, and that, in 1676, 7,500 men had gone out with fishing ships besides those on the sack ships. Downing held that a colony of 150 families was of great importance to the fishery since they kept the stores for the fishermen over the winter and offered some slight protection from the French. ^[23] Further investigations in 1678 by Sir William Poole and in 1679 by Charles Talbot resulted in a report, ^[24] made by the latter, that there were 1,700 people in the colony, that they were of great assistance to the Adventurers, sawing boards, building boats, and making oars in the winter, and that everything that pertained to the fishery in addition to their bread, clothing, malt, salt meat, and peas came from England, with the exception of such provisions and clothing as came from Ireland; and that only tobacco, sugar, molasses, rum, fresh meat, bread, and flour came from New England. The latter traded for fish but did little fishing, the chief complaint being that New England’s fisheries were on the increase, for “they steal fishermen every year.” Brandy, wine, and salt were obtained from France, Spain, and Portugal, but only in English ships. The planters had not more than three boats each and owned about a fourth of them. Boatkeepers were left behind by the Adventurers but “there are many that pay their passages out and home and fish the season.” They did not regard as important the “pernicious practice lately introduced by the masters and owners of the fishing ships of carrying to Newfoundland byeboatkeepers, and their crews and servants, to assist the inhabitants in their fishery.” In answer to claims that the fishery had increased, it was said that the number of fishing ships was only 125 in 1676, and the season was very bad in 1677. Only 159,000 quintals had been taken in 1679 and this amount was disposed of to the sack ships, of which there had been 140. In 1680 fishing ships totaled 97 and the catch, averaging merely 170 or 180 quintals a boat, was valued at £126,000, of which the sack ships took about 60 per cent and carried it to market. ^[25] In a memorial of February, 1680, the planters said that “by the violence of the Western Adventurers they have been forced to disperse to twenty different places,” and asked that the number should be reduced to four: Trinity Harbor, St. John’s, Ferryland, and Trepassey. ^[26] Because of these investigations new regulations were introduced in February, 1680, ^[27] which were favorable to residents. They were allowed to keep taverns and public houses, to live near the shore, ^[28] and to retain possession of their stages. But they were not allowed to build more until after “the Adventurers be all arrived,” nor to hire servants in England and transport them to Newfoundland. The regulation of 1671 which prohibited the departure of ships before March 1 was rescinded.

The regulations resulted in encroachments by the residents and became the object of protests from the fishing ships. On October 27, 1684, Captain Francis Wheler ^[29] reported that because of the scarcity of fuel at St. John’s, where the residents were forced to go two miles for it, they had pulled down the Adventurers’ stages and that, while the fishing ships had sufficient room for their stages in the ports, warehouses had been built which took up “good room.” Fishing ships declined to 32 in 1682 and rose to 43 in 1684, with seamen numbering 1,012 and 1,489, and boats 189 and 294 respectively. In the same years the planters’ or residents’ boats numbered respectively 299 and 304, and took nearly as much cod as the fishing ships.

The expansion of New England began to have its effect in lending support to the settlements. She was a competitor for labor and for trade. Provisions, molasses, and rum were exported ^[30] to Newfoundland to secure bills for an expanding New England trade or European goods. Labor was attracted to the higher wages of New England. According to Wheler, clothing, tackle, brandy, and Fayal wines were brought from England, but salt, liquor, and provisions came from France and New England. “Considerable quantities of rumm and molasses are brought hither from New England with which the fisher’s grow debauch’d and run in debt so that they are obliged to hire themselves to planters for payment thereof.” ^[31] “It would be impossible to continue the trade, for ten hours in the boats every day in the summer and the intolerable cold of the winter makes living hard, without strong drink. But the worst thing is that the New England men carry away many of the fishermen and seamen, who marry in New England and make it their home.” ^[32] It was reported on January 12, 1687, that great quantities of European goods were being imported into New England “under colour of trade to Newfoundland for fish.” “The island is become a kind of magazine of contraband goods.” ^[33] “They have their agents in most harbours in the land . . . and so drive an indirect trade, and supply the plantations with several commodities which they ought to have directly from England.” “Their vessels generally make two or three trips in a year with bread, flower, porke, tobacco, molasses, sugar, lime-juice and rum.” “They sell their provisions some small matter cheaper to the inhabitants, but then they oblige them to take a quantity of rum.” ^[34] Provisions and supplies from New England were sold more cheaply than those brought from England in order that she might obtain bills. ^[35] When fish were abundant and bills scarce the former were purchased by New England and sold to British ships for a “rial” (royal) or two less, with the result that the market for merchants’ fish was weakened and they were forced to store it and “rendered uncapable of paying their men’s wages or buying the necessarys in England for the next season.” ^[36]

Direct trade between Newfoundland and Europe followed the expansion of New England trade, and was an outgrowth of the restrictions of the Navigation Act and the decrease of fishing ships. Newfoundland offered an escape from the restrictions of the colonial system. Various ships, although claiming to be English-owned, brought their supplies from Spain and Portugal and took on men from foreign ports. Competition from those selling rum necessitated more direct trade and cheaper supplies of liquor from Europe, and involved a loss of trade to the fishing ships. New England was an important market for European liquors. ^[38] “At least one fourth of the ships here come from Spain and Portugal, supplying the land with all manner of necessaries, selling them cheaper than our owners can afford and returning with their cargoes of fish and glutting the market abroad. Their merchants living on the spot can generally undersell our merchants-adventurers, whereby our owners are much discouraged.” It was recommended that “all ships making voyages to Newfoundland should be obliged to clear from England, and not bring more liquor than be thought fit to allow for each ship.” ^[39]

The expansion of New England trade and the decline of the fishing ships facilitated the growth of the French fishery, again narrowed the market for Newfoundland fish, and increased the troubles of the fishing ships. French salt was weaker than the Lisbon or Spanish salt used by the English “soe they [the French] use more and their fish weighs the heavier and its [the salt] being weak does not easily burne.” ^[40] They fished “as they drive, and split it alive which makes it very white as does the abundance of salt they use for want of flat room to dry it, and cure it upon ships deck and carry it to market.” It was claimed that French duties had destroyed a market for 500,000 quintals of English fish, and that the remission in 1675 by the English of the 5 per cent tax on fish caught in Newfoundland contributed to French success. The French ^[41] profited by many things, including their aggressiveness in reducing the losses caused by Algerian pirates to ships going to Mediterranean markets, and their fish were said to have the preference in Alicante, Barcelona, Genoa, Leghorn, and Naples.

Increased trade with New England and Europe, a competition from French and New England fish, the growth of settlements and the English carrying trade, ^[42] together with the drain of labor to the New England winter fishery, weakened the position of the fishing ships and contributed to the expansion of the byeboat system as an efficient method of prosecuting the Newfoundland fishery.

Fishing ships with boats were unable to get a sufficient number of men “by which means instead of catching our lading we are obliged to make use of our owner’s credit to buy our lading from the boatkeepers [byeboatkeepers], otherwise [we] must go dead-freighted.” The Adventurers claimed they were placed at a disadvantage, what with having their stages pulled down, their boats staved in during the winter, the most convenient room taken up, in some cases, and their being compelled to work behind the byeboatkeepers “which puts them to the expense of one man in five,” or to hire stage and room. Captain Norris recommended (November 13, 1698) that the merchant adventurers should “have the preferable encouragement before the planters [and] boatkeepers.” The boatkeepers (byeboatkeepers), it was charged, to save paying the return passage home for their men, hid them or even sent them to New England and were able practically to control the land on which their stages were built, and were even known to sell it. The renting of stages to the fishing ships became a practice and increased. “We have known from £5 to £15 given this year for a boat’s room in this harbour.” ^[44]

Sir Josiah Child, interested in ship chandlery in the West Country, attributed the decrease of fishing ships “to the growing liberty which is every year more and more used in the Romish countries, as well as others, of eating flesh in Lent and on fish days,” to the increase of the French fishery at Placentia and other parts of Newfoundland, to the wars which had impoverished the western merchants and “reduced them to carry on a great part of that trade at bottomry viz., money taken upon adventure of the ship at twenty per cent per annum,” and

The outbreak of war with France in 1689 meant immediate losses to the fishing ships because fishermen were seized by the press gangs, Ferryland was attacked in 1694, and St. John’s and Ferryland were captured in 1696. ^[46] On January 13, 1697, it was recommended that convoys from Plymouth and Milford should accompany the salt ships leaving at the end of January, the fishing ships leaving at the end of February, and again, the salt ships sailing at the beginning of June. ^[47] Land defense assumed greater importance, and forts were recommended for Ferryland, St. John’s, and Fermeuse. ^[48] On the other hand the policy of encouraging the fishing-ship industry as a basis of naval support remained in force. After the restoration of peace by the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 it was recommended that the number of residents “during the winter should be limited to 1,000 lest by the increase of their numbers they engross the fishery to themselves to the prejudice of our navigation.” ^[49] Following the Revolution of 1688, the fisheries of Newfoundland came more definitely under the control of the House of Commons and legislation was introduced to support them. “An Act to Encourage the Trade to Newfoundland” (10 and 11 Wm. III, c. 25) was passed in 1699, ^[50] and went into effect on March 25, 1700. Its preamble emphasized the importance of the Newfoundland trade and fishery from the standpoint of seamen and ships, the consumption of provisions and exports “whereby many tradesmen and poor artificers are kept at work,” and the returns from other countries in the form of “great quantities of wine, oil, plate, iron, wooll, and sundry other useful commodities.” The regulations in the charters, such as “the ten commandments,” were repeated and elaborated; and, “whereas several inhabitants in Newfoundland and other persons, have, since . . . [1685] ingrossed and detained in their own hands . . . several stages, cookrooms, beaches, and other places . . . (which before that time belonged to fishing ships, for taking of bait, and fishing and curing their fish) to the great prejudice of the fishing ships,” such individuals were required to give up “to the publick use of the fishing ships . . . all and every the said stages, cookrooms, beaches and other places.” After March 25 no one was allowed to take up stages, cookrooms, beaches, or other places “before the arrival of the fishing ships . . . and until all such ships shall be provided with stages, cook-rooms, beaches and other places.” Buildings which had been put up since March 25, 1685, and had not belonged to fishing ships since that date were to be held in peaceful possession. Byeboatkeepers were strictly forbidden to disturb buildings “that did belong to fishing ships” since 1685 or that might have been built since March 25, 1700. The byeboatmen and residents were placed under further handicaps by the requirement that every master should hire two “fresh” men in every six, one who had made only one voyage and one who had never been to sea, and “every inhabitant should employ two such fresh men . . . for every boat kept by them.” This was intended to offset the regulation requiring every master or owner of a fishing ship to take out one green man in every five.

The act had little effect in reversing the prevailing trends of the fishery. ^[51] Because the fishing ships had fallen off so much in the years before 1685 they could not occupy more than a third of the stages and rooms, and the residents built and occupied the other two thirds. In some cases the residents relinquished their stages to the fishing ships, but used them before their arrival and after their departure. The fishing ships were “deprived by the Act of the right they had to the said places . . . which must be assigned for one of the reasons why they quitted the fishing trade so soon after the Act passed and why they have declined it ever since.” ^[52] A report by George Larkin, made on August 20, 1701, ^[53] stated that “these byeboatkeepers can afford to sell their fish cheaper than the Adventurers which must lessen the number of fishing ships,” and it paid aggressive fishing-ship masters to secure large numbers of passengers to further a competing development. The admiral of St. John’s Harbor in 1701, Captain Arthur Holdsworth from Dartmouth, had brought 236 passengers, “all or great part of which are byeboatkeepers and under a pretence of being freighters aboard his ship, which is only for some few provisions for their necessary use, he hath put and continued them in the most convenient stages, etc. in this harbour, which all along since the yeare ’85 have belonged to fishing ships.” He had brought out no fresh men nor green men and with others had searched the market towns in the West of England for passengers, and made “an agreement with them that, in case they shall happen to be Admirals of any of the harbours, they will put and continue them in fishing-ships roome.” The number of byeboats increased as a result. The number of residents rose from 2,159 in 1701 to 3,153 in 1715. ^[54] The boats belonging to them had become practically as many as were attached to the fishing ships at the end of the century. ^[55]

The Newfoundland fishery as conducted by the English had been handicapped by competition from France, New England, and the carrying trade, by wars, and—scarcely less serious—rumors of wars. It had borne grudgingly the tax of impressed sailors levied on an area favored by legislation as “the nursery for seamen.” An absence of military defense because of a policy imposed in the interests of the navy involved serious burdens incidental to the destruction wrought by wars. The support given by the fishing ships ^[56] to the navy weakened the position of settlements and the development of military defenses. The protection of the settlements by land defense was neglected because of reliance on naval defense, and because additional taxes would sap the strength of the English fishery in competition with the French. On the other hand the growth of settlements in spite of restrictions involved exposing them to attack from the French and disastrous losses. Settlements and the growing importance of the sack-ship trade, and of London interests ^[57] fostered by New England support, necessitated greater attention to land defense which called for a type of government other than that provided by the admirals of the fishing ships. The burden of naval defense strengthened New England and weakened the fishing ships of the West Country. Defense was built up at the expense of “opulence” and the ultimate withdrawal of New England suggests that “the act of navigation” was perhaps not “the wisest of all the commercial regulations of England.”