THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 53 



" sale-hunters." They prescribe that every skipper who sails 

 after the fleet for the purpose of buying up herring shall be 

 provided with a license under the seal of, and delivered by, 

 the " magistrate and treasurers of the fishery," i.e., the local 

 fishery boards. Every such skipper is, before sailing, 

 to take oath not to buy any salt-herring but from 

 Dutch steersmen, and to have every lot he takes on board 

 covered by a certificate from the seller, stating the latter's 

 name and his vessel's, his domicile and the quantity of fish 

 transferred. Sale-hunters are besides, like skippers, pro- 

 hibited from carrying their ware abroad. 



Sale-hunting appears at the outset to have been allowed 

 during the whole of the season ; though of course the 

 business could only pay as long as high prices lasted. A 

 restriction as to time was first put upon it, and a " hunting- 

 time " (jaagtijd) established in 1632, the closing date after 

 which it should not be lawful to transfer herring at sea, 

 being then fixed at July I5th. The object of the enact- 

 ment evidently was to prevent an overstocking of the 

 market at a period when prices naturally declined, the 

 first eager demand for early herring being satisfied. But the 

 practice of " hunting " sometimes occasioned a glut at the 

 very outset of a favourable season, or, as a placard of the 

 time has it, " so threw the herring-market prostrate * that 

 neither fishermen nor dealer could make a profit upon it." 

 This evil was, in later times, prevented by the hunting- 

 monopoly^ i.e. the prohibition to fishermen to sail home 

 during " hunting-time ' unless with a full cargo. This 

 monopoly never legally existed under the Dutch Repitblic ; it 

 has been a creation of the present century, or may possibly 

 have been established as a College bye-law late in the eight- 

 eenth century ; and those who in the course of the dis- 

 * " Snicks onder de voet wort geworpcn" 



