BOHUSLAN HERRING-FISHERIES. 227 



during the time they stay here.'*' Any one transgressing this rule for- 

 feits his goods. Our own subjects shall be allowed to fish wherever 

 herrings are found, and pay their annual tax in Marstrand.'' They need 

 not pay any tax on those herrings which they salt for their own use, but 

 on herrings salted for exportation to foreign parts they shall pay the 

 same tax as foreigners."* Both citizens and foreigners are commanded 

 to faithfully observe all these regulations." These so-called ' ' Law-books " 

 must not be co-nsidered, however, as having introduced any new or per- 

 manent law, or as having changed any of the general laws of the country, 

 with the exception of regulations which were occasionally made just for 

 one season.'^ Transgressions of these laws and regulations did not come 

 before the common courts, but before the royal tax-gatherers, who in 

 fact superintended the entire fisheries. It appears from the introduc- 

 tion to the oldest of these so-called '"Law-books," that the inhabitants 

 of Bohuslan, like all others who participated in these fisheries, had to 

 pay a certain tax, and that the same right of fishing was given to the 

 king's subjects in Denmark and Germany as well as to those in ]S"orway. 

 It is evident that such a law as that which the kings had made with re- 

 gard to the Marstrand coast, and later also with regard to the more 

 northern portions of the coast, allowing foreigners to participate in the 

 fisheries on very much the same conditions as their own subjects, drew 

 a large number of peo])le to our coasts during the fishing-season, and 

 Feter Clausson also reports that every year several thousand vessels and 

 boats came from Denmark and Holstein as well as from other countries. 

 As the king of course desired the greatest possible revenue from his 

 fisheries, and as this revenue was paid partly in an annual quantity of 

 hen ings, and partly in a certain sum of money on those herrings that 

 were exported, it was of course desirable to draw a large number of 

 fishers to the coast and exi)ort as many herrings as possible. It appears, 



'f As there were constant complaints that the foreign merchants injured the home- 

 trade, a decree was published in 1569, that they should only be allowed to trade from 

 Michaelmas (September 29) till the first Sunday in Lent. And by further decrees of 

 1573 and 1580, the privileges of foreign merchants were limited still more. 



1" The tax in herrings must always be paid in the largest and best herrings, and was 

 measured in a separate vessel holding about one-third of a ton. Every fisherman must 

 sell to the government a boat-load of the first herrings at the " usual " price. The 

 government moreover had the first right to buy the best herrings — until all the royal 

 salting-houses were supplied — auy one who made a higher bid than the tax-gatherers 

 being heavily fined. The tax-gatherers, however, must pay the highest price which 

 could reasonably be demanded. 



'* In 1580 the tax was raised to one dollar for 12 tons, also for citizens if they exported 

 their fish in foreign vessels. 



1^ The assertion made by some peoi>le, that several regulations contained in these 

 " Law-books " have been handed down to our own times by popular tradition and are 

 still observed by the coast population of Bohusliiu, shows only complete ignorance of 

 the present state of aftairs. The most complete of these ''Law-books " is mentioned in 

 Th. Boecli's Oversujt over Literainr, Love, Fofordningar, Besrripter m. m. vedrorende de 

 vorslce Fiskerier [Review of the literature, laws, regulations, decrees, &c., of the 

 Norwegian Fisheries], Christiania. 1866, p. 3-8. 



