Fish market

“ We will only remark, therefore, that, in large cities, fresh fish are sold either in a fish-market, or are hawked about the streets. The wives of the fishermen are very often employed in selling the fish caught by their husbands. The fisheries which are of the greatest consequence, in general commerce, are those which relate to herring, mackerel, salmon, seal, and whale. ”

“ On this point a recent Fisheries Report of Victoria says:—"The solution of the very important question of providing a larger and cheaper fish supply for the masses rests mainly in the hands of the public. The present high prices are maintained in virtue of a monopoly which can be only successfully combated by the initiation of a healthy trade competition or a more open fish market. ”

“ Refreshments were served in the hall and there were a candy and cake table and two stalls where fancy articles were sold. One of these stalls bore the sign, Fish Market. Here fish of many brilliant colors and quaint shapes were for sale; they were blotters, shaving cases, pincushions, sachet bags, needle-books, housewives, pen-wipers, spool and veil cases, emeries, court-plaster cases and kites. They were made of inexpensive materials, but their novelty caused them to sell rapidly. The fish market was well patronized. ”

“ If the spectator now peeps down the large square opening into the dismal space below, which appears like the hold of a ship lately recovered from the deep, he will see the shell-fish market, where piles of blue-black muscles, whelks, and grey cockles turned up with yellow, give the place a repulsive aspect of dirt and slop. There are but few buyers seen here, and they are generally women belonging to the costermonger class, for the men rather disdain the shell-fish trade. ”

“ A free market for fish was established in Westminster to supplement the free fish market in London to prevent forestalling and monopolizing of the fish industry and to increase the number of fishermen. Duties for its maintenance were paid by the fishermen. Certain men were given the right to incorporate fisheries of white herring for twenty one years to improve the fisheries and give employment to the poor. They were authorized to sell subscriptions and to build ships provided the fishery employ 100,000 in such fishery. ”

“ Passing behind the Conservatory and down the Eastern Arcade--in which will be arranged algæ, sponges, mollusca, star-fish, worms used for bait, insects which destroy spawn or which serve as food for fish, etc.--on turning to the left, we find ourselves in the fish market, which will probably vie with the aquaria on the other side in attracting popular attention. This model Billingsgate is to be divided into two parts, the one for the sale of fresh, the other of dried and cured fish. ”

“ Some bring meat and others vegetables. Millions of fleas and “jiggers” are always present, and in and out among the wares run countless naked and dirty children. The buyers and sellers shout aloud in boisterous tone.
Besides this market there is another given up entirely to the sale of fish. In the haze of early morning, far out upon the ocean, hundreds of black spots are seen bobbing up and down upon the water. They are the canoes of the fishermen who are hastening towards the land with the fruit of their night’s labor. ”

“ All fish are sold by the "tail," or by number excepting salmon, which are sold by weight, and oysters and shell-fish by measure. The baskets are instantly emptied on the tables, and the porters hasten for a fresh supply. It is the fisherman's interest to bring his whole cargo into the market as soon as possible, for if the quantity brought to market be large, prices will fall the more quickly, and if they are high, buyers purchase less freely, and he may miss the sale. ”

“ There is a fish market every morning, where may be had the trout—two species—and the white fish, the former of which are caught with hooks in deep water, and the latter in gill nets. Occasionally, other species appear, but the trout and white fish, which is highly esteemed, are staples, and may be relied on in the shore market daily ”

“ Fish are also taken to market while still living, and are improved in appearance by being blown up with bellows, and in weight by being crammed with stones. Through the lips of each fish a ring is passed, so that it may be at once taken from the water and hung upon the hook of the balance. Nor is the fish dealer particular as to the sufferings of the creatures which he sells, and he has not the least hesitation in cutting off a pound or two in case his customer does not wish to purchase an entire fish. ”

“ There is none of that clean blue twilight look which gleams and plays about the shops of the West-End fishmongers, and is sometimes enlivened by the sunny flash of the gold-fishes that float about the silver-looking globes, which give such a picturesque{82} appearance to the shops in that more refined neighbourhood. Here all is of “the fish, fishy.”
To this “rough and ready” market, those who wish to see how matters are managed must come early; for a minute or two before five o’clock the wholesale dealers are seated in their stalls, or recesses ”

“ PURCHASE OF FISH.--The housewife has much to do with the market price of fish and the varieties that are offered for sale, for these are governed by the demand created by her. The fisherman's catch depends on weather conditions, the season, and other uncertain factors. If the kinds of fish he secures are not what the housewife demands, they either will not be sent to market or will go begging on the market for want of purchasers. ”

“ Thirty to thirty-five francs a thousand is usually the market price, and the choicest fish naturally sell first. Speculation comes in now and then, and a scare as to the prospect of the catch being too abundant is as common and as disastrous as the fear that it may not be large enough. ”

“ The market also is of prime necessity. Fish are not caught and cured except for a market. Besides the extended coast, where an immediate demand must always prevail in proportion to increasing population, there is an existing market in California, amply attested by long voyages to Kamtchatka for fish, and by recent attempts to find fishing-grounds. San Francisco at one time took from Okhotsk nine hundred tons of fish, being about one eighth of the yearly fishing product of [Pg 160] Gloucester. ”

“ Out of this they pay half of one per cent to the government on the German and one per cent on the foreign sales. No fees are charged to importers and dealers using the auction section of the fish market. Out of the percentage paid to the government by the auctioneers is provided light and water, the cleansing of the halls and the carting away of refuse for destruction. Strict regulations govern the inspection of the fish and to ensure the destruction of those that have deteriorated they are sprinkled with petroleum immediately on detection. ”

“ Have you any means of knowing whether there are more prices than one for the fish, according to the market to which they are sent?-I am aware that each curer does not receive the same price. There are exceptions to the rule. Some send their fish direct to the foreign market, and some sell to a home firm, who require something for their risk and trouble. ”

“ The trade of the chief market is in fish. With the Altona market, the Hamburg market and the Geestemunde market, the sales in this section of Germany are the most important in the Fatherland for fresh sea fish, and salted herrings. About a fourth comes in fishing cutters or steam trawlers direct alongside the market halls, while the remaining three-fourths come from Denmark by rail or by ships from England, Scotland and Norway. Often there are three or four special fish trains from the north in a day, while twenty-five to thirty steamers bring the regular supply of imported fish. ”

“ Continental freightage also is light, and as the foreigner rarely keeps very closely to the laws of "fence months," he gets fish into the market when no home-caught of the same kind is to be had.
If all people, both rich and poor, could be persuaded to eat fish more freely, they would be benefited both in health and pocket. ”

“ A market which, from requiring only one thousand, comes to require annually ten thousand ton of fish, can seldom be supplied, without employing more than ten times the quantity of labour which had before been sufficient to supply it. The fish must generally be sought for at a greater distance, larger vessels must be employed, and more expensive machinery of every kind made use of. The real price of this commodity, therefore, naturally rises in the progress of improvement. ”

“ A fishing generally good at all the stations gluts the market, necessarily limited in its demands to an average supply, and, from the bulk and weight of the commodity, not easily extended to distant parts: and the herring merchant first, and the fisherman next, find that they have been labouring hard to little purpose. Again, a fishing under average, from the eccentric character of the fish, is found almost always to benefit a few, and to ruin a great many. The average deficiency is never equally spread over the fishermen ”

“ Though the success of a particular day's fishing may be a very uncertain matter, yet the local situation of the country being supposed, the general efficacy of industry in bringing a certain quantity of fish to market, taking the course of a year, or of several years together, it may, perhaps, be thought is certain enough ”

“ Nor is our fresh fish usually more palatable. New York, for instance, ought to be a paradise of fish eaters, yet how seldom is it served in prime condition, even in leading restaurants! In Germany they have various ways of bringing fish to market alive, even in interior towns; over here they are kept in cold storage for weeks, months—indeed years, although fish deteriorates by this process much more rapidly than even poultry—of which more anon; and everybody knows that the poorest kind of fish just out of the water is better than the best kind after it has been out a day or two. ”

“ The fish is sold by auction in the long-roofed but open-sided shed that runs the whole length of the harbour, and the auctioneers settle weekly with the skippers, after deducting their commission, the market-dues, and the earnings of the lumpers, [165] as the fish-porters who carry the catches from the smack to the market are called. Rougher, more rugged, ragged, or more quaintly dressed and bearded men than those of the Brixham trawling fleet, and those others who attend the auctions, it would be difficult to find ”

“ They are the special enemies of the fisherman, injuring his nets, removing the hooks from his lines, and spoiling his fish for the market by biting pieces out of them as they hang on his lines. They are however eaten, both fresh and salted, by fishermen, especially on the west coast of England, and they are sold regularly in the French markets. ”

“ It is often seen what a disagreeable thing it is to keep a large parcel of fish hanging on in the face of a fluctuating market, the chance being oftener against us than in our favour; and fish, in particular, being such a perishing article, the risk is very often great. ”

“ But it was on these very days when less fish was sent to market that the best prices were realized, and so there were always a number of dare-devils, who did not care if lives were lost so long as good prices were obtained and their record stood high on the weekly list of sales which was forwarded to both owners and men. ”

“ There is a growing market for the young bass or fingerlings to stock streams and ponds. The relation between the producer of stock fish and those who expect to raise bass of a marketable size is about the same as exists between the professional seed grower and the market gardener. It is much better for the small farmer who has or can make an artificial pond to buy his fingerlings from the professional breeder, who has facilities which are too elaborate to be duplicated on a small scale. ”

“ Let it be made illegal to destroy sea-fish whilst breeding, that is, give them a couple of months’ immunity, and the supply of a good wholesome article of food for the poor man will be increased a hundred-fold, and fish will be procurable in the London market at a tenth part of the present price. ”

“ They deposit their burdens on and around the various stands of the fish auctioneers, who have not yet commenced business, but whose men are in attendance seeing to the correct disposal of the various consignments. Strange, amphibious-looking individuals are, without much apparent aim, dodging about in the open unoccupied space of the market ”

“ If there aren't any fish in the brook you can stock it up without any trouble, and it would save you the money you pay to fish-markets as well as the nuisance of going fishing yourself and putting worms on hooks. ”

“ The regular shop-keepers come here in carts, to purchase of what is called the Fish Salesman, who stands as it were between the Fisherman who brings his cargo to market and the Retailer; but there are innumerable hawkers of fish through the streets, who come and purchase for themselves at first hand, particularly of mackarel, herrings, sprats, lobsters, shrimps, flounders, soles, &c. ”

“ Commercial considerations.—In those regions there are doubtless elements of commercial wealth in the number of seals and abundance of whales, if in nothing else. It seems to be a physical law that cold-water fish are more edible than those of warm water. Bearing this fact in mind as we study Plate IX., we see at a glance the places which are most favoured with good fish-markets. Both shores of North America, the east coast of China, with the west coasts of Europe and South America, are all washed by cold waters, and therefore we may infer that their markets abound with the most excellent fish. ”