38 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



these countries not only, but also and in particular in other 

 lands, whereunto herring is carried and diverted, a great 

 disgust, dishonour and contempt of herring, so that the 

 taste for good and timely herring is likewise spoiled, the 

 latter being thereby made unwilling and often remaining un- 

 sold along with the bad, to the loss of the merchants, and 

 consequently to the prejudice of the fishery, which is one 

 of the principal mines of our common countries' welfare ; 

 against which sundry abuses wishing promptly to provide, 

 We do well and expressly prohibit," &c. It is a constant 

 and prominent feature of Dutch fishery legislation that 

 people are always forbidden to do what they saw fit to do 

 " for their singular profit." 



Legislators never, until twenty-five years ago, could 

 realise the notion that, upon the whole, the fisherman is the 

 best judge of his own interests. Constant infractions of 

 the herring laws, instead of bringing the governing powers 

 and their advisers to acknowledge that to break the law 

 must upon the whole be more profitable than to observe it, 

 only caused them frequently to renew the different Acts, 

 and enact still heavier penalties against transgressors who 

 were uniformly considered as reckless and unprincipled 

 men ready to sacrifice the common interest to the success 

 of their own misdoings. It was considered laudable to 

 seek profit by catching herring, provided the profit should 

 only be looked for where Government pointed it out. All 

 other profit-seeking was a heinous offence. 



The same anxiety to maintain the reputation of the 

 Dutch cured herring abroad, which speaks from the above- 

 quoted considerations, also dictated another part of the 

 herring legislation of 1580, viz. the prohibitions against 

 tampering with brands. It has been said in the first part 

 of this work that the branding of herring barrels was ever 



