Excerpt from Report of the Secretary of State, on the Subject of the Cod and Whale Fisheries: Made Conformably to an Order of the House of Representatives of the United States, Referring to Him the Representation of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on Those Subjects, February 1, 1791

The fifheries of-the'united States, annihilated during the war; their vefi'els, -utenfils, and fifhe'rrnen defiroyed their markets in the Mediterranean and Bri tifh-america loft, and their produce dutied in thofe of France, their competitors enabled by bo'unties to meet and under fell them at the few markets remaining Open, without any public aid, and indeed, paying aids to the public: fuch we're'the hopelefs aufpices, under which this important bufinefs was to be re fumed. Yet it was refumed, and, aided by the mere force ofnatural advanta ges, they employed, during the years 1786, - 7, - 8, - 9, on an average, five hundred thirty-nine vefiels, ofnineteen thoufand one hundred eightyfive tons, three thoufand two hundred eighty-feven feamen, and took two hundred fifty thoufand fix hundred fifty kentals of fifh (fee No. 2) and an official paper (no. 3) fhews that, in the laf't ofthofe'years, our exportation amounted to three hundred feventy-five thoufand and twenty kentals, and thirty thoufand four hundred fixty-one barrels, deduction made of three thoufand feven hundred one kentals, and fix thoufand three hundred forty-three barrels of foreign tilh te ceived and re-exported. (see No. Still, however, the calculations in (no. 5) which accompany the reprefentation, thew, that the profits of the fales in the;years 1787, - 8, were too fmall to afford a living to the filherman, and on thole of 1789, there was fuch a lofs as to withdraw thirty-three veffels, of the town of Marblehead, alone, from the further purfuit of this bufinefs And the apprehenfion is, that, without fome public aid, thofe {till remaining will continue to withdraw, and this whole commerce be engrofled by a fingle na tron.

This rapid view of the cod-fifhery, enables us to difcern under what policy 'it has flourifhed or declined in the hands of other nations, and to mark the faét, that it is too poor a bufinefs to be left to itfelf, even with the nation the molt advantageoufly fituated.

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