THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 117 



herring fishermen could be told when and where to sail 

 without exposing them to utter discomfiture ; whereas the 

 whaler, by reason of the shifting ways of his sport, could 

 never have done well without entire liberty of action. 

 Thus, until the era of Bounties set in, whalers never looked 

 for gain but to their own enterprise, spirit, and labour ; 

 while herring-fishers were forbidden to seek it elsewhere 

 than in the observation of laws. The latter were regulated 

 over, and by degrees lost their energy ; whalers were free, 

 and preserved theirs long after the herring trade's decay. 

 These are the reasons why there never was a whaling 

 legislation properly speaking ; and certainly the principal 

 reasons why the prosperity of the whaling trade survived 

 that of the Grand Fishery, although the produce of the 

 former obtained no Government warrant as to its excellence, 

 and whalers were by the nature of their trade exposed to 

 far greater risks of accident. On the other hand, as regards 

 risks by war, the Grand Fishery were worse off, being 

 obliged to exercise their trade in seas constantly swept 

 by the enemy's squadrons, and in the centre of warlike 

 operations. Moreover, Dunkirk privateers seldom roved as 

 far as Greenland or Spitzbergen, and the whaling fleets 

 were only exposed to their depredations while sailing north 

 or returning home. The latter circumstance, besides 

 legislation, accounts for the fact of the Grand Fishery 

 having decayed long before the Arctic, or as it was generally 

 called in the 1 7th century, the Greenland business. 



The war with England of 1652-1654, which occasioned 

 the beginning of the Grand Fishery's decay, was also 

 prejudicial to the Greenland trade. In April of the 

 former year, before hostilities had actually begun, Holland 

 resolved not only to permit the said trade for the next 

 season, but even, if possible, to prevent its being thwarted 



