THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 69 



of a special prohibition, no other sale than "op Pak en 

 Keiir" (i.e. after the prescribed packing and assay, and 

 upon the quality determined by the brand) being per- 

 mitted. Another clause, prohibiting to pack salt, spices, 

 or other goods in herring barrels under cover of the brand, 

 is indicative of fraudulent habits among fishermen and 

 herring dealers ; and this supposition derives additional 

 strength from the official fixation, as appendices to the 

 law of 1656, of a series of very detailed forms of the 

 several oaths to be taken by herring skippers and sale- 

 hunters both on sailing and returning, which oaths provide 

 for every variety of infraction of the law which a person of 

 either description might have committed or might be 

 tempted to commit. Even these stringent measures did not 

 prevent frequent breaches of the law, which, as soon as May 

 1658, determined a special re-enactment of the prohibition 

 to sell herring caught before St. John's.* Another reno- 

 vation of the clauses against selling herrings at sea was 

 thought necessary in 1 663.1 It is more than probable, 

 from such indications as these, that the wrong effects of 

 several of the laws in vigour, and the prejudice they did 

 to the trade, had by this time been realised by most of 

 those immediately concerned. A very far-sighted and 

 able writer, P. de la Court, has delivered an opinion to the 

 same effect in his " Heilzame Politique Gronden en 

 Maximen" (edit 1669). "Several placards on the herring 

 fishery," he says, " have been made ere now ; the which 



taste," it is probable that a trial of the ware by the buyer was 

 substituted for the official brand. The custom is already referred to 

 in a resolution of the States of Holland of the year 165 1 (Res. Holland, 



255). 

 Res. Holl. 1658, p. 178. Groot Placaetboek ii. 2501. 



Ibid. 1663, p. 172 ; 1664, p. 1 10. Groot Plb. ii. 2898. 



