168 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



Hitchcock to be the chief obstacle to his plan, but he did 

 not consider it insurmountable, the fishing area being 

 situated "within the Queene's Majesties Seas " and much 

 closer to the British than the Dutch coast, thereby putting 

 the Dutch at a considerable disadvantage on the markets 

 of England and Scotland. Sir Thomas Overbury's 

 'Observations in his Travels' (written 1609, printed 1626) 

 likewise contain a warning against the Dutch, and 

 represent them as being England's natural rivals on the 

 sea. 



Still, under Queen Elizabeth's reign Dutch fishermen 



were not molested. Measures tending to alienate so 



desirable an ally against Spain were inconsistent with the 



politics of this far-sighted monarch. Things took a very 



different turn soon after James the First's advent to the 



throne. Besides considering himself personally affronted 



by Grotius' treatise on Mare Liberum, the contents of 



which agreed very ill with the King's passion for his 



prerogative, His Majesty felt sorely aggrieved, and by no 



means without reason, by the manner in which the Dutch 



exercised and overstepped their fishing rights ; not only 



ousting the English from the trade by lawful competition 



in overwhelming numbers, but occasionally offering them 



such violence as has for centuries been usual with such of 



the rival fishermen as chanced to be the stronger in a 



collision.* Fishery and piracy were then, as indeed they 



have been since, concerns closely connected together on all 



hands. English subjects were loud in complaining, and the 



result was the king's " Proclamation touching Fishing ' 



(May 1 6th, 1609) by which in consideration of the injury 



done to English by foreign fishermen, and in virtue of the 



Royal prerogative, foreigners were prohibited from fishing on 



* For instances of this see Muller, p. 47. 



