PREFACE. 



THE following pages contain, not a complete history of 

 the Dutch sea fisheries, but merely the outlines of their 

 history as connected with legislation. 



The subject is a vast one. Sea fishery has throughout 

 history been either the greatest, or among the most con- 

 siderable, of the industries of the Netherlands. Some of 

 its branches have during three centuries and a half been 

 regulated and organised by laws and bye-laws, and have 

 been constantly in the minds of the country's rulers, legis- 

 lators, and publicists ; and the mass of material for their 

 history is, of course, in proportion to the total of attention 

 bestowed upon the subject in former times. To read this 

 subject up and exhaust it would be the work of many years, 

 and involve a thorough search of the archives of the present 

 kingdom of the Netherlands, several of its provinces, and 

 many of its cities ; whereas the present author has only 

 had the seven months before him which have elapsed since 

 the subject for this prize essay was known in Holland, and 

 has during that short period by no means been master of 

 the whole of his time. Several minor parts of the subject 

 have for this reason been left out of the range of research ; 

 such are the sea fisheries of the provinces of Zealand, 

 Friesland, and Groningen, the whole of the oyster business, 

 and the salmon, herring, and other fisheries in the river 

 estuaries, which are very justly reckoned as sea fishery, 

 and treated as such in official documents of the present day. 



