COMPARATIVE VIEW, — DENMARK. 167 



was dissolved, the company being so poor that they 

 could not continue the trade. Any Danish burgher 

 was then declared to be at liberty to pursue the 

 fishery. Another company, established in 1636, 

 sent out ships, which neglected the fishery, and con- 

 fined their operations to searching for gold and sil- 

 ver. Their search being unsuccessftd, the company 

 was discouraged, and speedily relinquished any fur- 

 ther speculation*. In the year 1697, they sent 

 four ships to Greenland, wliich procured 4710 pun- 

 cheons of oil. In 1751, an ordinance was passed 

 in favour of the Chartered Greenland Company, 

 prohibiting all others, both natives and foreigners, 

 from trading to any of the colonies established in 

 Greenland, or within fifteen miles thereof, under 

 penalty of seizure and confiscation. In 1753, their 

 whale-fishing concerns established in different ports 

 had increased to 90 sail, the cargoes of which, in this 

 year, amounted to 344 whales f . 



The Greenland fishery afterwards declined, and 

 was disused by the Danes for many years, befisre 

 any attempt was made to revive it " In 1785, the 

 King of Denmark granted a bounty of about SOs. 

 Sterling pe?' ton, to all vessels in the Greenland and 

 Icelandic fisheries, on condition of their fitting out 

 their ships, and selling their cargoes in a Danish 



* Forster's Voyages and Discoveries in the Xortlij p. 171. 

 t Gent. Mag. vol. xxi. p. 189- ; and xxi\'. p. 'I'?. 



