Weighing saltfish at St. John’s harbour, n.d.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s outport economy depended not on cash, but on merchant credit for much of the nineteenth century. Each fall, fishers traded their annual harvest of salt-cod to local merchants for clothes, food, fishing gear, and other supplies.

Photographer unknown. Reproduced by permission of the Archives and Manuscripts Division (Coll. 137 03.02.002), Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL.