The Wealth of Nations · Chapter
Appendix explained
This appendix provides detailed statistical accounts to illustrate and confirm the discussion on the tonnage bounty to the White Herring Fishery from the Fifth Chapter of the Fourth Book.
What happens
This appendix provides detailed statistical accounts to illustrate and confirm the discussion on the tonnage bounty to the White Herring Fishery from the Fifth Chapter of the Fourth Book. It includes tables of busses fitted out in Scotland over eleven years, the number of empty barrels and barrels of herrings caught, the bounty paid, and calculations of the effective bounty per barrel when considering salt duties and export premiums. A second account shows the quantity of foreign salt imported and Scots salt delivered duty-free for the fishery from 1771 to 1782.
Themes in this chapter
Role of Government
The appendix details government bounties and salt duty exemptions for the herring fishery, illustrating state intervention in economic activities.
Wealth and Money
The calculations of bounties, premiums, and duties demonstrate how government policies affect the cost and value of herring, a key commodity.
Key passages
“The two following Accounts are subjoined in order to illustrate and confirm what is said in the Fifth Chapter of the Fourth Book, concerning the Tonnage bounty to the White Herring Fishery.”
These two accounts are added to support the discussion in Book IV, Chapter 5 about the tonnage bounty for the white herring fishery.
The appendix serves as empirical evidence for earlier theoretical points.
“Though the loss of duties upon herrings exported cannot, perhaps, properly be considered as bounty; that upon herrings entered for home consumption certainly may.”
While the forgone duties on exported herrings might not count as a bounty, the duties waived on herrings sold domestically definitely do.
Smith distinguishes between different types of government subsidies.