The prosperity of this trade depended, in a very con siderable degree, on our being at peace with the south of Europe. This will sufficiently appear from the fol lowing official document : In the year 1790, there were exported from Newfoundland, 684,421 quintals of dried fish, of which 581,824 went to the south of Europe ; and 6221 barrels of wet fish, of which 3667 went to the same parts. In the year 1791, there were exported 720,147 barrels of dry fish, of which 623,083 went to the south of Europe ; and 7011 of wet fish, of which 4.338 went to the same parts. These were years of peace ; but in the year 1798, there were exported only 353,363 barrels of dry fish, of which 209,995 went to the south of Europe; and in 1799 ,313,756 barrels, of which the south of Europe took off 238,953. The ex port of wet fish did not fall off in nearly the same pro portion ; indeed, in the year 1798, the falling off, com pared with 1790, was very trifling, there having been exported in the latter year 6026 barrels, but then none of these went to the south of Europe. In the year 1799, the number of hal rcls of wet fish expoKted, amount ed only to 3548, of which the south of Europe took 990.
The tonnage, and men employed, of course, fell off in a similar proportion. In the year 1790, the tonnage was 31,644, and the men 2608; in 1791, the former was 34,166, the latter 2639 ; whereas, in 1798, the ton nage was only 15,838, and the men 1268 ; and in 1799, the tonnage was 14,322, and the men 1145. It is pro bable, however, that the Newfoundland fishery, which, at present, is as depressed as it was in 1799, will revive, now that we are at peace with the south of Europe. This fishery is almost entirely confined to a fcw har bours on the English•Channel, of which Poole is by far the most considerable.
The English seem to have commenced their fishery for whales in the North Seas, about the year 1598, but the first voyage, expressly undertaken by them for this purpose, was in the year 1611. At this time the Rus sian company sent two ships into the Greenland seas; end in 1636, King Charles confirmed this fishery solely to this company. They, however, soon relinquished it. The trade, after this, seems to have been abandoned, till the year 1725, when the South Sea company revived it; but they were very unfortunate, so that, in the year 1732, they sold all their ships.
In the year 1750, a bounty of forty shillings a ton was granted by government. At this time there were sent from England only 19 vessels, amounting to 6264 tons. The bounty, however, soon operated advantageously; for in 1756, there were 67 vessels. The French war
commencing, the number again fell off; and in 1762, there were only 28. In the year 1770, they had in creased to 50, which, on an average, were about 300 tons burden, and navigated each by 54 men, of whom six were apprentices.
From the year 1770, till the commencement of the American war, the Greenland whale fishery from Eng land -progressively improved, there having been, in 1775, the year before hostilities began, 96 ships, con taining nearly 30,000 tons, employed in it. From this period it again declined, there having been, in the last year of the war, only 38 ships, of about 20,000 tons. As soon as peace was restored, however, the fishery re vived very rapidly ; in 1785, there were 136 vessels ; in 1786, 162; in 1787, 219 ; and in 1788, 216. The number of seamen employed at this time was nearly 10,000 ; the ships were valued at 30001. each ; their out-fit averaged 10001.; and the wages of the men, and their expellees on the home voyage, 3001. From this great out-lay, and the low price of oil, arc. those inter ested in the trade petitioned for a larger bounty. In 1788, new regulations respecting the bounty were made; and in 1791, the men were protected, but the bounty does not seem to have been increased. At present, there' generally sail from the ports of England, for the Green land and Davis' Straits fishery, between 70 and 80 ves sels, of the burden of between 20 and 30,000 tons, and navigated by about 3000 men. The ports from which they sail, are Hull, Whitby, Scarborough, Shields,• Sunderland, Berwick, awl London.
The South Sea whale fishery was not followed in this country till about the year 1776, when there were equipped 15 vessels of about 170 tons each. As the Americans had carried on this fishery before this period, four American harpooners were sent out in each vessel.• The first voyage was not very successful, as they got only between forty and fifty tons of oil a-piece, yet the superior quality, and the price of it, advanced by the war from 351. to 701. per ton, were sufficient to encou rage the merchants to persevere in the business. In 1778, 19 vessels were sent into the South Seas; but from some cause, not explained, in the following year, 1779, the number was reduced to four ; and it conti nued under 10 till the year 1785, when 11 vessels were sent out : in 1788, the number of vessels were 42, and their burden 8637 tons ; till the year 1781, all the ves sels belonged to London ; after that, Liverpool, and some other of the out-ports, began to participate in the trade.