The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

This sudden contraction was of some significance to the economy of
south-west England, the heart of the Newfoundland trade. But in national
terms, it was merely one of a number of factors that coalesced between
1780 and 1850 to shift the focus of Britain’s fisheries to east coast ports
drifting for herring or trawling for white fish—the crucial climacteric for
the latter being the development of the national railway network during
the 1840s. Though there is regional evidence showing some expansion of
fishing between 1780 and the 1840s, overall production does not appear
to have increased in line with population. Indeed, while the demographic
surges which occurred between 1520 and 1640, and again from the
1740s, stimulated an increase in agricultural productivity noted by
contemporaries and historians alike, no such ‘revolution’ is evident in
British fishing. The key reasons for this appear to be linked to the
problems of processing for the export market and distribution for the
domestic. Even though large quantities of cured fish were exported,
particularly from the Shetlands—from whence dried fish was despatched
to Spain and Germany—Scotland and some English regions, the
performance of the British overseas was relatively poor until the
nineteenth century, especially in comparison to the Dutch, who produced
better quality cured herring.
Problems on the demand side largely explained the modest
performance of Britain’s fisheries in the home market during these years,
even though the trading networks developed by this time were more
sophisticated than has sometimes been supposed. Fish landed on the
Yorkshire coast, for instance, was carried overland by teams of pannier
ponies to towns such as York, Leeds, Bradford and Halifax. By the
1780s, this means of transport regularly supplied Manchester, and even
Liverpool, with fresh North Sea fish. 227 Likewise, fish merchants in
Devon transported their produce overland to Honiton, Tiverton and
up-country as far as Bath, 228 while haddock taken by the inshore
fishermen of Fife was also regularly despatched overland for sale in
Edinburgh. 229 Water transport was used by the home fish trade, with
fresh catches shipped up navigable rivers, most notably the Humber and
its tributaries, to inland centres. Coasters, too, were deployed to carry
227 Robinson, ‘Fish Trade’, 233-4.
228 Northway, ‘Devon Fishing Industry’(1994), 127.
229 M Gray, Fishing Industries, 16.
131