THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 95 



seven years.* A premium double the amount was allowed 

 to fishing boats from Burch in Zealand, in 1758, out of the 

 provincial treasury ; and some inhabitants of Veere having 

 applied for a similar bounty, the premium system was 

 extended to all Zealand fishermen in 1759-t Holland 

 adopted it some years afterwards. 



Some fresh difficulties with Hamburg are on record in the 

 following years. English and Dutch herring at this time 

 were still concurrents in the Hamburg market, both under 

 certificate as to their having been caught after St. John's 

 Day ; and as a few Dutch sale-hunters were annually sent 

 to Hamburg straight from the fishery, competition between 

 them was now on a fair footing. But others began now 

 to obtain unlawful advantage; In 1769, England and the 

 Republic ordered their ambassadors jointly to remonstrate 

 against the proceedings of the Danes, who managed to 

 smuggle forbidden herring into Hamburg under certificates 

 mentioning not the date of their catching, but the one on 

 which the Danish trader had taken them on board.J 

 Worse enemies than these appeared in the Hamburg 

 market in 1773. A Prussian fishing company, incorporated 

 at Embden some time before, toward the opening of the 

 season of that year, boldly announced its intention to bring 

 herring to Hamburg a week before the lawful term ; and it 

 was the Prussian charge d'affaires' boast, that the ancient 

 city would not dare to refuse these cargoes, treaty or no 

 treaty. He was mistaken in the first instance ; for an 

 Embden vessel, having fished as early as June iSth, was 

 refused admittance by the Hamburg authorities, although 

 coming into the port a day after the first lawful Dutch 

 cargo. The King of Prussia in the next year, quite in the 



* Ned. Jaarb. 1754, pp. 92, sqq. 



t Notulen Stateu v. Zeeland, 13, 20, 21, 24, Sept. 



\ Res. Ho II. 1769, p. 701, Res. Stat. Gen., April 2ist 



