1635.] CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY. 53 



their renewal was attempted by the interested par- 

 ties ; but in consequence of the people of Overyssel, 

 Utrecht, Guelderland and others, having, by their 

 representatives, most strenuously resisted the mea- 

 sure, and petitioned for liberty to embark in the 

 whale-fishery trade ; their High INIightinesses the 

 States-General conceived that the renewal of the 

 charters would not only give general dissatisfaction, 

 but would likewise be inimical to the commercial in- 

 terests of the United Provinces, and therefore caused 

 the trade to be laid entirely open to all adventurers* 

 This determination produced an effect so happy, that 

 in a short time the trade was increased almost ten- 

 fold. The number of ships annually sent out by 

 the chartered companies, would appear to have onl}- 

 amounted to about thirty, while, on the dissolution 

 of the monopoly, the influx of shipping into the 

 whale-fishery commerce was so great, that in a few 

 years they accumulated to between two and three 

 hundred sail f. 



* Beschryving, vol. i. p. 21. 



t De Witt, in his " Interest of Holland," mentions that the 

 Greenland Whale-fishing trade increased ten-fold, on the dis- 

 solution of the monopolizing companies. Now, as the Fries- 

 landers, who fitted three ships, were considered as fomiing 

 one-ninth part of the united companies, the fleet of the whole 

 would probably amount to about twenty-seven sail, to which, 

 adding the Haarlingers, and other additional adventurers, we 

 may consider the Dutch Greenland Fishery, during the latter 



