The aggregate quantity of dry fish sold by the London costermongers throughout the year is as follows—the results being deduced from the table before given:
| Wet salt cod | 93,750 |
| Dry do. | 1,000,000 |
| Smoked Haddocks | 4,875,000 |
| Bloaters | 36,750,000 |
| Red-herrings | 25,000,000 |
Gross Value of the several Kinds of Fish annually Sold in the Streets of London.
It now but remains for me, in order to complete this account of the “street-sellers of fish,” to form an estimate of the amount of money annually expended by the labourers and the poorer classes of London upon the different kinds of wet, dry, and shell-fish. This, according to the best authorities, is as follows:
| Wet Fish. | £ | |
|---|---|---|
| 175,000 | lbs. of salmon, at 6d. per lb. | 4,000 |
| 1,000,000 | lbs. of live cod, at 1½d. per lb. | 5,000 |
| 3,250,000 | pairs of soles, at 1½d. per pair | 20,000 |
| 4,400,000 | whiting, at ½d. each | 9,000 |
| 29,400,000 | plaice, at ¾d. | 90,000 |
| 15,700,000 | mackarel, at 6 for 1s. | 130,000 |
| 875,000,000 | herrings, at 16 a groat | 900,000 |
| 3,000,000 | lbs. of sprats, at 1d. per lb. | 12,000 |
| 400,000 | lbs. of eels, at 3 lb. for 1s. | 6,000 |
| 260,000 | flounders, at 1d. per dozen | 100 |
| 270,000 | dabs, at 1d. per dozen | 100 |
| Sum total expended yearly in wet fish | 1,177,000 | |
| Dry Fish. | ||
| 525,000 | lbs. barrelled cod, at 1½d. | 3,000 |
| 500,000 | lbs. dried salt cod, at 2d. | 4,000 |
| 4,875,000 | smoked haddock, at 1d. | 20,000 |
| 36,750,000 | bloaters, at 2 for 1d. | 75,000 |
| 25,000,000 | red herrings, at 4 for 1d. | 25,000 |
| Sum total expended yearly in dry fish | 127,000 | |
| Shell Fish. | ||
| 124,000,000 | oysters, at 4 a penny | 125,000 |
| 60,000 | lobsters, at 3d. | 750 |
| 50,000 | crabs, at 2d. | 400 |
| 770,000 | pints of shrimps, at 2d. | 6,000 |
| 1,000,000 | quarts of mussels, at 1d. | 4,000 |
| 750,000 | quarts of cockles, at 1d. | 3,000 |
| 4,950,000 | whelks, at 8 for 1d. | 2,500 |
| 3,600,000 | pints of periwinkles, at 1d. | 15,000 |
| Sum total expended yearly in shell-fish | 156,650 | |
Adding together the above totals, we have the following result as to the gross money value of the fish purchased yearly in the London streets:
| £ | |
|---|---|
| Wet fish | 1,177,200 |
| Dry fish | 127,000 |
| Shell fish | 156,650 |
| Total | £1,460,850 |
Hence we find that there is nearly a million and a half of money annually spent by the poorer classes of the metropolis in fish; a sum so prodigious as almost to discredit every statement of want, even if the amount said to be so expended be believed. The returns from which the above account is made out have been obtained, however, from such unquestionable sources—not from one salesman alone, but checked and corrected by many gentlemen who can have no conceivable motive for exaggeration either one way or the other—that, sceptical as our utter ignorance of the subject must necessarily make us, still if we will but examine for ourselves, we shall find there is no gainsaying the facts.
Moreover as to the enormity of the amount dispelling all ideas of privation among the industrious portion of the community, we shall also find on examination that assuming the working-men of the metropolis to be 500,000 in number (the Occupation Abstract of 1841, gives 773,560 individuals following some employment in London, but these include merchants, employers, shopkeepers, Government-officers and others), and that they, with their wives and children, make up one million individuals, it follows that the sum per head, expended in fish by the poorer classes every week, is a fraction more than 6¾d., or, in other words not quite one penny a day.
If the diet of a people be a criterion, as has been asserted, of their character, it may be feared that the present extensive fish-diet of the working-people of London, is as indicative of degeneracy of character, as Cobbett insisted must result from the consumption of tea, and “the cursed root,” the potato. “The flesh of fish,” says Pereira on Diet, “is less satisfying than the flesh of either quadrupeds or birds. As it contains a larger proportion of water (about 80 per cent.), it is obviously less nourishing.” Haller tells us he found himself weakened by a fish-diet; and he states that Roman Catholics are generally debilitated during Lent. Pechlin also affirms that a mechanic, nourished merely by fish, has less muscular power than one who lives on the flesh of warm-blooded animals. Jockeys, who waste themselves in order to reduce their weight, live principally on fish.