COMPAIIATIVE VIEW. — ^.NGLAND. lOS 



that they realized iimiieiise profits, — the English, 

 when they sent out vessels, were so commonly im- 

 siiccessful, that little incitement was offered to the 

 commercial part of the nation, to hazard their pro- 

 perty in the business. 



The grant of the whale-fishery to the Russia Com- 

 pany was renewed in 1635, by Charles the First, hut 

 it does not appear that any revival of the trade was the 

 consequence. Thus this trade, which some nations 

 found to be particularly advantageous, was so nearly 

 laid aside by the British, that for a number of 

 years they made no spirited or effectual attempt to 

 revive it ; but merely sent a few occasional ships, 

 and sometimes had none on the fishery, when the 

 Dutch and Hamburgh ers employ (^d between three 

 and foiu' hundred sail. The Legislature, fully im- 

 pressed with the importance of the speculation, in 

 1672, gave a general encouragement to adventurers, 

 by allowing the importation of Greenland produce 

 free of duty, and by granting a limitation of the ri- 

 gours of the navigation act, whereby the speculators 

 might avail themselves of the assistance of .expe- 

 rienced foreigners, to the amount of one-half of the 

 crews of the ships employed in the fishery. This 

 had the effect of producing a few private attempts 

 to revive the trade, but still it seems with such ge- 

 neral ill success, that after seven years it was again 

 abandoned. As the Greenland trade then sunk 

 entirely into disuse, the plan of a joint stock com- 



