What do the fisheries of France furnish? She has employed, this year,
fifteen vessels in the southern, and two in the northern fishery,
carrying forty-five hundred tons in the whole, or two hundred and
sixty-five each, on an average. The English ships, led by Nantuckois as
well as the French, have never averaged in the southern fishery, more
than one fifth of their burthen, in the best year. The fifteen ships
of France, according to this ground of calculation, and supposing the
present to have been one of the best years, should have brought,
one with another, one fifth of two hundred and sixty-five tons, or
fifty-three tons each. But we are told, they have brought near the
double of that, to wit, one hundred tons each, and fifteen hundred tons
in the whole. Supposing the two northern vessels to have brought home
the cargo which is common from the northern fishery, to wit, twenty-five
tons each, the whole produce this year will then be fifteen hundred and
fifty tons. This is five and a half months'provision, or two fifths of
the annual consumption. To furnish for the whole year, would require
forty ships of the same size, in years as fortunate as the present, and
eighty-five, _communibus annis_; forty-four tons, or one sixth of the
burthen, being as high an average as should be counted on, one year
with another: and the number must be increased, with the increasing
consumption.
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