228 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



however, that the inhabitants of Bohuslan did not look favorably upon 

 fishermen coming from abroad, and Peter Claussoii relates that the Bo- 

 huslan people hated all those who came there to fish, and frequently 

 cursed them and beat them, so that it was not safe for any fisherman to 

 go among them, unless tbey were well armed and a number of them 

 went together. Gradually, however, the number of foreign fishermen 

 grew so large that they became all-powerful, and the principal j)art of 

 the herring-trade passed into their hands. In order to become a source 

 of national welfare, the herring-fishery must, as was the case with the 

 Dutch, be not so much an object in itself as a means of increasing com- 

 merce and navigation. From the time (1G12 and 1G20) when the Dutch 

 resolved to carry on the heriiug-fisheries according to strict rules for 

 their own sake and as an object in itself, they began to go down, and 

 gradually lost their importance, so that this so-called " gold mine" of 

 the Netherlands dwindled down to nothing, and had finally to be sup- 

 ported by considerable government subsidies. 



The method of fishing likewise led to trouble, for in order to catch 

 the greatest possible number of fish, nets were used exclusively, requir- 

 ing a large number of people, who were thus taken away from other 

 occupations, and being crowded together, occasioned disturbances and 

 immoral practices. The cause why fishing was carried on with nets must 

 doubtless be sought in traditions and in the regulations of the above- 

 mentioned ''Law-books," as well as in the manner in which the royal 

 tax was coUected.2* Even the preparing of the herrings for the trade, 

 which consisted chiefly in drying, required by far too many men. 



That these fisheries were very considerable may be inferred from sta- 

 tistics given in a pamphlet published at the time, according to which 

 Marstrand annually salted, dried, and exported 600,000 tons of her- 

 rings.^^ We must here give Feter Clausson's brief description of these 

 fisheries, as throwing a good deal of light on this whole question. He 

 says: ''Several thousand people from the neighboring countries, Nor- 

 way, Denmark, and Holsteiu, had come here with their wives and 

 children, and had built themselves houses on the coast. Noblemen, as 

 well as merchants and peasants, had erected large and beautiful houses, 

 some of them two or three stories high ; some of these were so large 

 that 168 tons of herrings could conveniently be hung up and dried at 

 one and the same time. Extending for 50 to 60 miles along the outer coast, 

 there were many thousand houses and huts, and numberless people lived on 

 every bay and fiord and island. Thousands of vessels arrived annually 

 from Denmark, Germany, Holland, England, Scotland, and France for 

 the purpose of buying herrings and shipping them to distant countries.'^ 

 Marstrand, which was the centre of the fishery and the trade connected 



20 See "Law-book" of October 26, 1575, «^8-ll, 13; HolmUrg, "Bohislan's historia 

 och lesknfmng," II, p. 88 ; 2d edition, I, p. 283. 



i^ Holmberg, "BohusJdn's historia och leslcrifning," II, p. 84-85: III, p. 408; 2d edition, 

 I, p. 280; III, p. 193. 



