BOIIUSLAN HERRING-FISHEKIES. 231 



it that only good herrings got into the market. People had learned wis- 

 dom by experience, and henceforth only Swedish subjects were allowed 

 to engage in the herring-fisheries, whilst foreigners had to acquire this 

 pri\ilege by special compact. But no such compact or treat}' with for- 

 eigners is ever mentioned. Foreigners were also forbidden to buy her- 

 rings in the i^orts. There was no tax on herring-fishing, and it is suji- 

 posed that the Swedish Government by granting this freedom intended 

 to make the population of the newly-acquired province more favorably 

 inclined towards itself. The tax on herring exported to foreign countries 

 was lowered considerably. To maintain good order among the fisher- 

 men a so-called "port-law" was i)ublished the 10th of May, 16G9. 



As the inhabitants of Bohusliin henceforth carried on the fisheries 

 almost exclusively under a comparatively mild government, they derived 

 considerable benefit from the fisheries. Holmberg mentions as a proof of 

 this that most of the church ornaments in Bohuslan date from this 

 period.^^ 



We have no data regarding the exact time when this fishing-jieriod 

 came to a close. But about the year 1G70 the herrings seem to have 

 ceased to come to the southern coast of Bohuslan, and according to the 

 most reliable authorities fishing seemed to have closed in 1G79 or 1680 

 also on the central and northern coast. According to an old tradition 

 there is said to have been occasional fishing till the commencement of 

 the great Northern war, under Charles XII, in the year ITOO.^^ 



In the foregoing it has been said that the law of 2Ia<jnus Sdlconsson i» 

 the oldest law of Bohuslan. This law had been examined, however, and 

 its language changed a little under the reign of King Christian IVwhen 

 it was printed in the year 1604. As regards the fisheries, however, the 

 regulations of the old law remained almost unchanged. This law of 

 1604 remained in force in Bohuslan till the winter of 1682, when the 

 Swedish law was introduced.^** The regulations of the Swedish law 

 regarding fishing were fewer in number and shorter, as the fisheries were 

 not so imjjortant for Sweden as they had been for Norway ; but they 

 changed nothing regarding the privilege of fishing on the sea-coast, for 

 coast-fishing was at that time, in Sweden as well as in Norway, with few 

 excexjtions, open to all inhabitants of the country.^^ 



About sixty or seventy years after the great herring-fisheries of the 

 sixteenth century came to a close, the last great Bohuslan fishing-pe- 

 riod commenced, concerning which all the inhabitants of this province 



'» Holmberg, "Bohusl. hist. o. besk.," I, p. 135; II, p. 65; III, p. 115, 346, 411; 2d edi- 

 tion, I, p. 148, 280; II, p. 241 ; III, p. 136, 196. 



^^ Lundbeck, "Antehningar rorande BohusUinska fiskerierna, i synnerliet silljisket" [The 

 Bohusliin fisheries, especially the herring-fisheries]. Gottenburg, 1832, p. 35-36. 



^Eolmherg, ''Bohusl Usf, o. iesk.," I, p. 135; 2d ed., I, p. 148.— AvVert, "De Mrske 

 Heisknder" [Sources of Norwegian Law], p. "iSn-^O^J.—^Nytt juridiskt Arkiv" [New- 

 Law Archives], 1876, II, No. 12, p. 1-9. 



-1 Among these exceptions the more important are the so-called "crown fisheries," 

 near the royal domains, parks, or islands, where fishing can only he carried on by 

 special permit of the government authorities. 



