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

fish to market, though their cargoes were generally processed products
like the parcels of cured fish conveyed from the Yorkshire coast to
Newcastle, Sunderland and London, the barrels of smoked herring
carried from north-east Scotland to Leith and Edinburgh, and the pickled
herring taken coastwise from East Anglia to London, and from North
Cornwall to Bristol. Despite these trading linkages, the ceiling on
domestic demand for fish remained low until the 1840s. Most fish
transported to inland towns and cities was destined for the luxury end of
the market. Only the better quality fish, which commanded the highest
prices, could stand the cost of swift overland transport. Fish was, of
course, a perishable commodity, and if it was to be retailed in a relatively
fresh condition it was essential that it reached inland markets swiftly.
Pannier ponies and fish vans were fast by contemporary standards, but
they could only carry limited consignments which kept up costs.
Contemporary economics therefore determined that lining was the
principal means of white fish capture because trawling took large
quantities of lower quality fish which were unsuitable for the overland
trade. The only fish that poorer sections of inland communities could
afford was that which had begun to go ‘off’ and such produce was far
from popular. Even herring, which in season was shipped in bulk quite
cheaply from East Anglia to the London market, deteriorated rapidly and
was often in poor condition by the time it reached the consumer. 230
Thus, demand-side constraints inhibited the fish trade’s ability to
exploit the potential of the mass market that was developing apace in the
inland industrial districts of northern England, the Midlands and central
Scotland in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In breaking this
log-jam, the railways were to change the face of Britain’s fisheries.
The Advent and Impact of the Mass Market for Fresh Fish
Evidence relating to Britain’s fisheries from the mid-eighteenth century
is abundant compared to that which has survived for earlier eras. Much
of this information is incidental, varying in character from newspaper
reports to archeological finds to the views of witnesses appearing before
Parliamentary enquiries. However, substantial series of centrally
generated documentary and statistical material exist for long stretches of
the post-1750 period. For example, data pertaining to the number and
tonnage of fishing vessels—a measure of capital investment—registered
230 Robinson, ‘Fish Trade’, 230-1.
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