[color=#000000
ost_uid0]If I recally correctly, Nic is right and dialog indicates that a sizeable chunk of the fleet is wiped out at Wolf 359. Starfleet considered this a priority threat and threw as much force at the Borg as it possibly could, which meant recalling as much of the fleet as could arrive at the battle in time.
Consider also all of the many occasions in which the Enterprise is the only ship in range to deal with a threat. This occurs even in Star Trek Generations, where the location is within a few light years of Earth. In STTMP, the Enterprise is the only ship that can deal with the approaching V'Ger even though it is sitting in Earth spacedock and hasn't even been run in yet. It strains credulity that a Starfleet generously supplied with vessels would have only one or two supplementing the defenses of Sector 001. These and many other instances bespeak a Starfleet of limited resources in terms of capital vessels.
According to Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek was conceived to be analogous to the British Navy of Horatio Hornblower: A small fleet of ships a handful of which are sent to the far reaches of the globe, out of contact with their superiors for long periods of time. I think that both early and later series reflect this idea.
However, we should probably draw a distinction between Starfleet battleships ("heavy cruisers"), which would include the various incarnations of the Enterprise, Voyager, and other large capital ships that represent and protect the Federation around the galaxy, and both (a) smaller Starfleet support ships and (b) the commercial fleet. Only the battleships would have been sent to Wolf 359, but there might well be a somewhat larger number of short-range ships, science ships, ambassador's consular vessels, etc., though I don't think there would be that many of these either. But there must be a very large number of commercial vessels in face registered on Federation and aligned worlds, carrying on commerce between the peoples of the Federation.[/color
ost_uid0]