ii6 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



ever put upon their trade, viz. a placard of May 25th, 1652, 

 by which whalers were enjoined to carry the whole of their 

 blubber, oil, and whalebone home and sell them in the 

 Dutch markets " for the conservation of the custom-house 

 duties and the market tax."* Besides this edict, which 

 probably was never enforced with much vigilance, no 

 working regulations were ever applied to them. There was 

 no fishing season determined for them by law, and no rules 

 for branding their produce. Government, however pater- 

 nally minded towards them as well as others, never under- 

 took to teach them their business. They were protected, 

 not directed ; guarded, not led. They accordingly managed 

 to mind their own business with generally satisfactory 

 results, and keep their trade going when others, fettered 

 down by a multitude of working rules, saw theirs go to 

 ruin. 



This important difference in the Government policy 

 towards the two fisheries is fully explained by the different 

 nature of the trades. One of the leading features of herring 

 legislation under the Republic was to prevent unripe, or too 

 early herring being caught ; and as the whale's existence 

 is not limited to one season, no such measures were required 

 for the Arctic fishery. Next, train-oil and whalebone are 

 not subject to amelioration by any peculiar process, such as 

 the curage of herring ; whence Dutch train never excelled, 

 or was fancied to excel, that of other nations, and there was 

 no occasion for branding it, or for any of the several 

 obstructions to trade which result from such a process. 

 Thirdly, the annual migrations of the herring shoals have 

 always taken place at a date recurring with a considerable 

 degree of regularity every year, and their progress through 

 the North Sea is traced upon a constant route, whence 



* Groot Placaetboek, i. p. 683. 



