COMPARATIVE VIEW. ENGLAND. 105 



joint-stock company sunk a capital of 82,000/., the 

 Dutch, in the course of ten years, included be- 

 tween 1699 and I7O8, equipped 1652 ships, which 

 caught 8537 whales ; the produce whereof sold for 

 26,385,120 florins, of which, the sum of 4,727,120 

 florins, was clear gain*. And, at the same time 

 that the South Sea Company suffered vast loss in 

 their whale-fishing speculation, the Dutch almost 

 invariably were gainers by it. To attribute the dif- 

 ference which thus existed, between the success of 

 the Dutch and the iC-iglish, to a deficiency of per- 

 sonal courage or natural intellect on the part of the 

 l3,tter, would not be an agreeable solution, neither 

 would it be altogether correct ; nevertheless, it is 

 very evident, that the spirit and energies of the 

 Dutch, were, in general, both better directed and 

 better followed up. Indeed, the result of their fishing 

 proves, that the character given by historians, of the 

 Dutch in the seventeenth century, must be correct ; 

 namely, that this nation was, at the period alluded 

 to, one of the most hardy and entei*prising in the 

 world. 



Various opinions have been suggested as to other 

 causes of difterence in the success of the English 

 and Dutch whale-fishers. Some of these will be 

 considered. 



Histoire des Pcches, vcl. i. p. 297- 



sat^, 



