Relations of production and exchange in the fishing and fish processing industries of North East Scotland.

Deas, Barrie Chisholm

Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to develop a socio-economic model of the fish catching, marketing and processing industries of north east Scotland. It does so with particular reference to the relations of production and exchange within the different sectors of the industry, notably; inshore, trawling, fishselling, large and small processing sectors. Despite its relatively high level of technological development, the inshore fishery exhibits a pattern of property relations akin to peasant proprietorship in agriculture. These features are explained in terms of the theory of petty commodity production. The trawling industry with different historical origins and different relations of production are more amenable to explanations based on the concepts of wage labour and industrial capital. The convergence of these two sectors, particularly evident in the 1970s is explained in teims of merchant capital, and transitional forms. The changing role of the fishselling companies and the rise of fishermen's co-operatives are placed in this theoretical context. Particular attention has been devoted to the white fish processing sector. The post-war development of this industry has defied the expectations of informed observers within the industry and academic commentators alike. The prevailing view has been that increasing capitalization and mechanization, associated with the spread of a factory system of organization would supercede hand technologies and small scale pattern of organization in a relatively smooth, linear, unidirectional process. An empirical examination of the industry showed that this has not been the case. The core labour process, filleting, is at best unevenly mechanized. This has many ramifications for the structure and operation of the industry. Finally, the thesis examines to what extent it is useful to examine the technology and organization of the white fish processing sector in terms of the theory of combined and uneven development, particularly as elaborated by Raphael Samuel.

Citation

DEAS, B.C. 1981. Relations of production and exchange in the fishing and fish processing industries of North East Scotland. Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology, PhD thesis. Hosted on OpenAIR [online]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.48526/rgu-wt-1993198

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 8, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 8, 2024
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.48526/rgu-wt-1993198
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1993198
• Award Date: Aug 31, 1981