tion deals not only with trademarks and patents, but with the protection of commercial names, articles at expositions, and alien residents, with seizure of unlawfully marked goods, and with the maintenance of an international bureau. The United States is, likewise, party to the international "convention for protection of submarine cables," concluded in 1884, and supplemented in 1886 and 1887; to the convention concerning the formation of an international union for the publication of customs tariffs, concluded in 1890; and to the international conventions regarding the importation of spirituous liquors in Africa, concluded in 1899 and 1906. In 1903 and 1905, international sanitary conventions of which the United States is a party were concluded; and in 1907 an agreement was made providing for the establishment of an international office of public health. The United States became a party to the international agreement respecting the unification of formulas for potent drugs, concluded in 1906; to the international wireless-telegraph conventions concluded in 1906 and 1912; and to the international convention of 1911 for the unification of rules with respect to assistance and salvage at sea. In 1910 the United States also ratified the international convention of 1907 respecting the rights and duties of neutral powers in naval wars, but, being contingent upon ratification by other powers, the convention did not become effective.1 The United States is party to various other international conventions not directly concerning commerce and shipping. Those here mentioned are important in that they tend toward the uniform treatment by many powers of the special commercial matters with which they deal. Were it not for these international agreements, more special conventions between the various industrial nations would be necessary. 'The convention was ratified in 1909 by Germany, Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Mexico, The Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Salvador, and the United States. イ CHAPTER XXXI. THE FISHERIES OF NEW ENGLAND, 1789-1860.1 Prosperous condition of fisheries, 1789-1860, 157. The whale fishery, 158. Whal- Except for temporary difficulties resulting from the tariff policy of the new government and the disturbed state of foreign affairs which eventually culminated in the second war with Great Britain, the New England fisheries, quickened by the stimulation felt generally in all lines of economic activity in the United States, had from 1789 to 1860 a period of great prosperity and expansion. Throughout the colonial period and during nearly all of the first quarter of the nineteenth century the prosperity of the fisheries depended mainly upon favorable conditions of foreign commerce. During the period of the Napoleonic wars the foreign trade of the United States was in a continual state of uncertainty, rising and falling in volume according to the rapid changes in the commercial policies of the French and the English Governments. This lack of stability of maritime commerce rendered impossible the successful operation of the fisheries. With the downfall of the Continental system, the overthrow of Napoleon, and the conclusion of the second peace with Great Britain, the foreign trade of the United States was restored to a normal state, and the long period of peace which ensued gave opportunity for undisturbed development. Moreover, certain internal changes in the United States were of even greater benefit to the fisheries than the restoration of peaceful relations with European nations. The growth of industrial and commercial activity along the Atlantic seaboard, the opening of the Middle West, and the economic progress of the South were attended by a great increase of population, which brought about a constantly growing domestic demand for all the products of the various fishing industries. A home market which took the large portion of the product, and a foreign market that always absorbed the annual surplus, easily made possible the successful pursuit of all branches of the fisheries. The cod fishery, which besides its natural advantages received subsidies from the Federal Government, grew vigorously, its area widening and its tonnage 'In addition to the references indicated, the writer of these chapters on the fisheries has consulted an unpublished work by Professor Walter S. Tower on the History of the Fisheries of the United States Outside of New England, written during 1906 and 1907. |