Notes on early migratory settlement in Newfoundland.

(Posted by Bill Crant on NFLD-LAB, Feb 5, 1998, source omitted)

From the early 16^th century, fishing ships sailed to Newfoundland from France, Spain, and Portugal each spring, returning in the fall with their catch of salted codfish. The island, with southern Labrador where Spanish Basques caught whales, was an extension of Europe, a fishing station. Late in the 16^th century the Iberian fisheries at Newfoundland declined. Their place was taken by ships from the southwestern counties of England. As a result, the 17^th century Newfoundland fishery came to be divided between France and England.

The fisheries were economically important to both counties. They were also thought to be a vital component of national strength because they trained seamen.

Control of the Newfoundland fisheries was an issue in the wars between Britain and France which began in the late 17^th century. The result was a formal division of the fishery. Britain assumed sovereignty over the island in 1713, and by 1763 over all Acadia, Cape Breton, and Canada. France retained the right to fish in season on the so-called French Shore, and was ceded the nearby island of St. Pierre and Miquelon as a base for fishing on the banks.

Englishmen dominated the Newfoundland fishery during the 18^th century. Migratory fishing ships still sailed back and forth, but increasingly merchants purchased the fish from resident planters, settlers who had made Newfoundland their home, and sold them goods in return. Warfare stimulated this trend until, by the end of the Anglo-French wars in 1815, the fishery was almost totally in the hands of Newfoundland settlers.