132 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



hand in the race for premiums which at this period charac- 

 terises the whole of the sea-fishing concerns. The pre- 

 mium applied for was limited to 40 florins per head of the 

 crews, besides exemption from export duty on train-oil, &c. 

 Some objection was at first made to the plan. A Committee 

 of the States of Holland, before whom the request was laid, 

 considered premiums as a rule to be very useful in bringing 

 a new trade to prosperity, but doubted their efficacy in 

 upholding a business the decay of which was attributable 

 to causes beyond the legislator's control, such as the 

 development of whaling abroad, and the closing of some 

 foreign markets. Still, the Committee were not averse to 

 grant the trade some succour, and advised a bounty of 30 

 florins per head of the crew, for such vessels only as should 

 return dean t i.e. empty. The matter was treated with the 

 prolixity and slowness characteristic of the later years of 

 the Republic's existence, and Holland did not take a deci- 

 sion till January iSth, 1777, when a premium of 30 florins 

 was granted for all whaling vessels indiscriminately, and 

 the immunity from export duty declined.* The premium 

 was granted again in the next years. 



The result of the application of the bounty system was 

 as negative upon the whaling trade as on the herring 

 fishery ; and the table contained in Appendix B shows an 

 actual decrease of the number of vessels sailed after bounties 

 had been first allowed in 1777. The Whaling Commis- 

 sioners accordingly in 1779 sued for an increase of the 

 bounty to 80 florins per head of the crews ; but the demand 

 was declined. The war against England in 1781 next put 



f Res. Holl. 1775, p. 607, 793, 990 ; 1776, p. 38 ; 1777, p. 73. The 

 collection of printed documents emanated from and received by the 

 States in these years, moreover contains a series of long memorials 

 exchanged between them and the Greenland Committee. 



