106 WHALE-FISHERY. 



I. The interest of money in Holland was, at this 

 time, much lower than in England. 



II. Their export trade in articles the produce 

 of the Greenland seas, occasioned their enrichment 

 at the expence of otlier nations, and the value of 

 oil and whalebone was kept up, by not being allow- 

 ed to accumulate in the market at home. 



III. Their seamen and fishing-officers were chief- 

 ly natives ; this exempted them from the great ex- 

 pence of hiring foreigners, to w^hich the British, un- 

 til after the establishment of the boimty system, 

 were constantly subjected*. 



IV. The Dutch built their ships at a cheaper 

 rate than the English, and practised greater fruga- 

 lity in their equipment f . 



V. They suffered little loss with an unsuccessful 

 voyage, as the different tradesmen who supplied 

 their ships w^ith provisions and stores, were in the 

 liabit of venturing tlieir goods on the success of the 

 voyage, receiving nothing if the vessel returned clean, 

 but a very large profit if she procured a full cargo ^. 



Had the Dutch possessed all these advantages in 

 reality, their superiority to the English in the fish- 

 ery, would be no longer surprising. Some of these 



■* Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. iii. p. 1 30, 

 t Elking's View, &c. p. 49,-50. 

 1;. Macpherson, vol. iii. p. 130. 



