THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 225 



season till a later date than July 1 5th. On the other hand, 

 the new monopoly sued for by Amsterdam was granted by 

 this Decree, and premiums were withheld (although without 

 accretion to others) from all such herring shipowners as 

 should decline to accede to a universal Association, since 

 famous under the name of " Vereeniging der Zoutharing- 

 reederijen" The constitutive rules for this Association 

 were shortly afterwards drawn up by a committee of dealers 

 and shipowners, and approved by the Provincial States.* 

 Four local Boards, residing at Vlaardingen, Maassluis, 

 Amsterdam and Enkhuizen, were appointed by the herring 

 shipowners, each buss conferring a vote on her owner. 

 These boards were to buy up all branded herring brought 

 in by the partners, and sell it out again ; the prices for both 

 purchase and sale being fixed, from day to day, by a 

 central Board residing at Vlaardingen, " to the furtherance 

 of the shipowners' interest, by preventing unnecessary 

 depression of prices, and on the other hand, moderating 

 them so as to leave no herring unnecessarily unsold." The 

 Board, though a wholesale and monopolist dealer, was not 

 to export directly, but sell to second-hand inland dealers 

 only ; and all herring left unsold on April ist of any year 

 was to be sold in auction at any price, and the returns 

 recovered before May ist. As herring kept till April ist 

 of the year succeeding its capture is comparatively worth- 

 less, this fresh monopoly was equivalent to throwing away 

 part of the herring caught, in order to enhance the price of 

 the rest. The measure was just the reverse of what ought 

 to have been done. The only chance of upholding the 

 herring business, even under the laws which bound it down, 

 lay in altogether removing the preposterous " hunting ' 

 monopoly and restriction, and leaving the supply of the 

 * Bijvoegsel op het Staatsblad, vol. xvi, p. 16. 



