The cod fishers numbered several hundred vessels and the whalers about forty.

Thousands of citizens living along the seashore and the rivers fished more or less to add to the local food supply.

The deep-sea fishermen exported a part of their catch, dried and salted.
Yankee vessels sailed to all ports of the world and carried the greater part of the foreign commerce of the United States.

Flour, tobacco, rice, wheat, corn, dried fish, potash, indigo, and staves were the principal exports.

Great Britain was the best customer, with the French West Indies next, and then the British West Indies.