30 Success (m [/16 Edge 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     and mackerel were canned by women in the local lobster 
     
     factories. These small businesses — for at no time was 
     
     Myrick’s the only one engaged in packing lobster - 
     
     increased in number until the early twentieth century 
     
     when a slow decline began. Cod, herring and hake were 
     
     salted. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Myrick’s, as it was often called, also bought 
     
     lumber, potatoes, turnips - anything that could be 
     
     produced in quantity and sold locally, either in the 
     
     Maritimes or in Boston. The company also bought up 
     
     many parcels of land, including the entire area of the small 
     
     community of Tignish Shore, houses and all. In addition, 
     
     they owned stores, barns, the lobster factory, and more 
     
     buildings in Alberton, about ten miles southeast of 
     
     Tignish. Myrick’s rented out farms and houses which they 
     
     often had repossessed after the original owners became too 
     
     indebted to the company. The Myrick family built 
     
     comfortable houses for themselves on large plots of land in 
     
     and near Tignish. They came to regard the area as a holiday 
     
     home, but still kept their American citizenship. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The growth of the fishing industry made Tignish 
     
     simultaneously more independent and more vulnerable. 
     
     They were more independent because there was now an 
     
     alternative to subsistence farming, although a good many 
     
     people continued to do both. Some financial independence 
     
     for women too was provided by the fact that they could 
     
     get employment in the fish factories, gutting, cleaning 
     
     and packing. This provided work for young unmarried 
     
     women; while wages were low, without the factories these 
     
     women would have been earning nothing. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Still, on the whole, the people of Tignish were 
     
     made more vulnerable, because those who fished for the 
     
     new companies were always at their mercy. Their boats 
     
     and gear often belonged to the company. It also owned a 
     
     general store, at which fishermen and their families could