THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 73 



fishermen against payment of safeguard-money, but the 

 States of Holland, " considering that this might be of very 

 dangerous consequence, as making the inhabitants of these 

 countries indirectly tributary to the King of England," 

 prohibited the taking out of such passports, and on February 

 3rd insisted afresh on a strict observation of the prohibition 

 to sail* The treasurer of the Herring Fishery at Maassluis 

 even incurred the States' severe censure for having procured 

 British passports for the shipowners of his city ; he was 

 strictly enjoined not to make use of the documents bought 

 and paid for, and only escaped punishment upon considera- 

 tion of his having acted " more from inadvertency than 

 malice."t Wishing, however, if possible, to divert the evils 

 of war from their fishermen on equal and honourable terms, 

 the States-General ordered one of their naval commanders 

 .to offer England a safeguard for her fisheries on terms of 

 reciprocity ; and a letter to that effect was accordingly 

 sent from the Dutch flagship to the magistrate of Yarmouth.^ 

 No answer being received, the herring fishery remained 

 forbidden in the years 1665 and 1666, in the course of 

 which the prohibition was re-enacted more than once, and 

 prohibitions against importing foreign herring and salt-fish 

 were enacted to prevent the enemy's profiting by the 

 stand-still of the trade in Holland. A proposition to 



* Res. Ho 1 1. 1665, pp. 59, 78. 



f Ibid. p. 78. It will be remembered that every town where 

 herring busses were owned, even though not represented in the 

 College, at this time and afterwards had a local fishery board of 

 its own, and a " Penningmeester" or treasurer, appointed to manage 

 the local fishing interests. The Treasurers of Enkhuizen, Rotterdam, 

 Schiedam, Brielle, and Delft, were usually the delegates of those towns 

 to the College. 



% Hollandsche Mercuriits, 1665, p. 143. 



Groot Plac. Boek. iii. 293, 295. Res. Holl., 1666, pp. 101, 310. 

 E. 8. G 



