144 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



As this, however, was contrary to the law of 1778, it was 

 necessary to obtain the States-General's permission for it, 

 who accordingly, upon the request of the Commissioners of 

 Maassluis, empowered the Admiralty of the Maas to allow 

 vessels to be sold out of the Dutch cod-fishery to foreigners, 

 under the sole condition that they should be bought back 

 at the end of the war. The condition probably was not 

 very faithfully observed ; for 63 hookers sailed in 1780, and 

 only 49 in 1784. The next years were very unfavourable, 

 and the trade had come to nought in 1787, when only two 

 vessels are stated to have been employed in it. The 

 bounty system was then applied to the Iceland as well as 

 to the other fisheries. The Commissioners of Maassluis 

 applied for a premium in June 1788, and were by Resolution 

 of April Qth, 1789,* allowed fl. 500 per hooker, being 

 the same sum promised to the herring busses the year 

 before. But premiums failed in the cod-fishery, even more 

 utterly than they had failed in other branches. Not one 

 hooker sailed to Iceland in the next years ; and the cod- 

 fishery had virtually come to a close before the final over- 

 throw of the Republic. 



CHAPTER IV. 



COAST FISHING. 



In using this title, which is a common denomination of 

 several distinct branches of the Dutch sea-fisheries, a 

 previous elucidation is necessary to prevent misunder- 

 standings. " Coast-fishery " is thus named because carried 

 on, not off or under the Dutch coast exclusively, but from 

 that coast ; i.e. by flat-bottomed vessels owned there. 



* Groot Placaetb. C. vol. ix. p. 1314. 



