THE FISHERIES 67 



Fish caught by foreigners were regularly imported into Eng- 

 land, and such importation was encouraged by the crown and by 

 Parliament until after the Reformation. Foreign fishermen were 

 also encouraged, as is shown by the mandates of Edward I. and 

 Edward II. above alluded to, and by many others. 



The first of the formal treaties providing for liberty of fishing 

 was concluded in 1351 between Edward III. and the king of 

 Castile and towns on the coast of Castile and Biscay. Edward 

 had signally defeated the Spanish fleet in the year before in the 

 battle known as " L'Espagnols sur Mer," and in the truce for 

 twenty years which followed, it was stipulated that there 

 should be mutual freedom of commerce and navigation, and 

 that the fishermen from Castile and Biscay should be at liberty 

 to come freely and safely to fish in the ports of England and 

 Brittany, and in all other places and ports, paying the dues 

 and customs to the lords of the country. 1 Spanish fishermen 

 do not appear to have taken part in the great herring fishing 

 on the east coast, Spaniards, indeed, have never cared for 

 pickled or cured herrings, differing in this respect from the 

 Teutonic races, but have preferred the mackerel, the pilchard, 

 and the cod. The liberty of fishing conferred by the treaty 

 was no doubt chiefly valuable to them with respect to their 

 fishery off the Irish coast, the south-west coast of England, and 

 along the coasts of Aquitaine and Brittany for sardines and 

 mackerel. Two years later a similar treaty was concluded 

 between Edward and the towns of Portugal and Algarve, in 

 which liberty of fishing was stipulated in precisely the same 

 terms, 2 and no doubt related to the same waters. 



Early in the next century we find what seems to be the first 

 of the numerous agreements as to the liberty of fishing for 

 herrings in the narrow seas, quite a number of which were 

 made in the comparatively short and troubled reign of Henry 

 IV. In a truce concluded in 1403 between Henry and the 

 King of France, it was provided that merchants, mariners, and 

 fishermen should be free to pass to and through either kingdom 



1 Fcedera, v. 719. " II eat convenu, &c., &c. Item, que pessoners de la seignurie 

 del roi de Caatelle et del counte de Viscay peussent venir et pescher fraunchement 

 et sauvement eu les portz d'Engleterre et de Bretaigne, et en touz autres lieux 

 et portz oti ils vorrontz, paiantz les droits et les custumes a les seignura du pais," 



Ibid., v. 763 



