Author: Eric Williams
It's interesting to look back in history and pinpoint policies, contrived or real, that influenced behavior that remains today. As someone who has lived in the West Indies for two years, I can tell you the importance of salted cod (or salt fish) in West Indian cuisine, especially Jamaican cuisine. It seems a bit odd that a fish from hundreds of miles away would be popular in an island country located in the marine rich Caribbean And turns out, it doesn't make logical sense, but it makes (or made) economic sense.
The peculiar economy developed in the West Indies concentrated
on export crops while food was imported. Most important of all the food
supplies was fish, an article dear to the heart of every mercantilist, because
it provided employment for ships and training for seamen. Laws were passed in
England to encourage the consumption of fish. Friday and Saturday were set
apart as fish days. Fish was an important item of the diet of the slaves on the
plantations, and the English herring trade found its chief market in the sugar
plantations. The Newfoundland fishery depended to a considerable extent on
the annual export of dried fish to the West Indies, the refuse or "poor
John" fish, "fit for no other consumption." A West Indian
tradition was thereby fostered. Imported salted cod is still today a normal and
favorite dish in all but the well-to-do West Indian families; whether it is
still "fit for no other consumption" is not known.
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