By the nineteenth century, the Newfoundland fishery was largely, controlled by merchants
based in the capital at St. Jonh’s. They marketed the catch supplied by the fishers working out of more
than 600 villages around the long coastline. In return, the merchants provided fishing equipment,
clothing, and all the food that could not be grown in the island’s thin, rocky soil. This system kept the
fishers in a continuous state of debt and dependence on the merchants.