THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 57 



might have prevented its further development, and the 

 rivalry between England and the Netherlands as regards 

 sea-fishery first came to an open outbreak. The several 

 phases of this rivalry, down to its end in the war of 1652, 

 are of considerable moment in the Dutch fisheries' 

 history ; but as they belong to an order of events entirely 

 separate from the trade's home regulations, it is preferable 

 to treat of them in a separate chapter. 



As regards home legislation, the now following years 

 offer little or no matter of interest, and are only marked by 

 a series of renovations of the placards before mentioned, 

 occasionally varied by alterations of little importance. 

 The only novelty in any way suggestive of the state of 

 the business, besides the placards on sale-hunting already 

 alluded to, is an Act of May I2th, 1620,* by which it is 

 prohibited to fish for herring among the cliffs of Shetland, 

 Ireland and Norway ; not in order to avoid collisions with 

 the inhabitants of those countries, but merely, as appears 

 from the entire tenor of the statute, because the herring 

 caught in the said waters was said to be of inferior 

 quality and unfit for curing. By this edict, besides, a 

 very notable extension of the Herring Fishery College's 

 functions is sanctioned for the first time, viz., their being 

 invested with judicial power. Any person sentenced by 

 the common magistrate for catching herring in the pro- 

 hibited waters, or salting, barrelling, or selling herring so 

 caught, is granted the right of appealing to the college, 

 who shall examine the matter in their next session, and 

 finally decide it by a judgment from which there shall be 

 no further appeal. The college is thus appointed to be a 

 court of appeal in some fishery cases, and its attributions 

 as such were in the course of times extended to most other 



* Groot Placaetboek I. p. 752. 



E. 8. F 



