SPITZBERGEN 25 



this monopoly was taken from them, and Dutch whaling as a 

 whole improved rapidly from that time. With growing num- 

 bers the Dutch still held their own against all other nations. 

 The whalers were well protected — the Government frequently 

 granted armed convoy to and from the fishing grounds — and 

 there were few restrictions on them. They were not allowed 

 to sell their products outside of the Netherlands, nor might 

 Dutch whalemen serve in the whaling vessels of any other 

 country, or leave port in time of war. But these restrictions, it is 

 immediately evident, were in the nature of protection to the 

 whaling industry, a protection which was strengthened later 

 in the century when (in 1675) the 2-per-cent. tax on foreign 

 whale products was doubled, Dutch whale products being, of 

 course, free in the Netherlands. Again there was a prompt and 

 marked improvement in the state of the industry, and soon the 

 Dutch whaling fleet numbered some two hundred and fifty 

 ships a year. 



After the very earliest of the Spitzbergen whaling, the French 

 did but little, excepting the Basques, who were sought after by 

 both English and Dutch as harpooners and speckshioners. In 

 all the technique of the attack the Basques were counted ex- 

 perts, and both Dutch and English learned from them. (Simi- 

 larly the Dutch and Basques appear to have evolved together 

 the flensing and boiling methods, which other nations copied 

 and which, only slightly modified, are still in use to-day). The 

 French went whaling in small numbers only, at a time when 

 much of the success of a whaling season for any nation de- 

 pended on that nation's strength of numbers — and of arms. 

 Consequently, they were attacked on all sides, for any vessel of 

 any foreign nation was a legitimate prize, and in 1636, fourteen 

 French whaleships were taken by Spaniards. 



English whaling, on the other hand, was everlastingly har- 

 ried by internal dissensions. From the very first of the " Green- 

 land" whaling, the presence of "interlopers,'' foreign or English, 

 was taken by the Muscovy Company as a personal affront, to 

 be met with threats and reported at home with glowing tales 

 of what the Company ships would have done had numbers, arms, 



