3016. FISHERIES, Prostrated.—
The
fisheries of the United States, annihilated during
the war [of the Revolution], their vessels,
utensils, and fishermen destroyed; their
markets in the Mediterranean and British
America lost, and their produce dutied in
those of France; their competitors enabled by
bounties to meet and undersell them at the
few markets remaining open, without any
public aid, and, indeed paying aids to the public;—such were the hopeless auspices under
which this important business was to be resumed.—
Report on the Fisheries. Washington ed. vii, 542.
(1791)