UNDER THE STUARTS: JAMES LI A NEW POLICY 153 



Dutch herring fishery it is evident that a similar tax imposed 

 on it would have brought in a goodty sum annually to the 

 king's coffers. A few years later, when James did attempt to 

 collect the tax from the Dutch fishermen, each buss was to be 

 charged an "assize duty" of 10,000 herrings, or 66, 13s. 4d. 

 Scots, which was equal to about 5, lls. Id. sterling; so that if 

 the duty had been exacted from the 2000 herring-boats fishing 

 on the coast the crown would have benefited to the extent of 

 about 11,000 a year, and the Hollanders would have been all 

 that the poorer. 



When the principle of the assize-herring was explained to 

 the Dutch ambassador, he appears to have devoted some atten- 

 tion to it. He argued that although the Scots Acts showed that 

 the assize-herrings had been exacted from the Scottish fisher- 

 men in the firths on the east and west coasts, the tax had never 

 been imposed in the north seas and at the Isles (Shetlands) 

 where the Hollander busses fished ; it would therefore be an 

 " innovation " to enforce the payment there now. He further 

 averred that treaties between King James and the United 

 Provinces existed by which Dutch fishermen were freed from 

 any payment to the king for fishing on his coasts and seas. 

 Moreover, he declared the sea was free to all, mare est liberutn, 

 and consequently there was no king nor lord to be acknow- 

 ledged upon the sea, " but every stranger may fish over all the 



on the ground that the collection of the herrings was "very hard and difficult," 

 commuted the thousand herrings in the Firth of Lothian into a money payment 

 of 6 Scots. In the eighteenth century, when it had been for the most part 

 granted to individuals, or farmed, it took the form of a tax ranging from 4 Scots 

 to 10 Scots per boat or per net, and was felt as a grievous burden. In the Firth 

 of Forth each boat that was " size- worthy " (viz., that caught 3000 herrings during 

 the whole season) had to pay ten shillings as "size-duty." On the west coast it 

 amounted to 10 Scots, or sixteen shillings and eightpence sterling, whether 

 herrings were caught or not. With regard to the gross value of the tax, those 

 of the great Dunbar fishings were leased in 1614 for five years for 1000 Scots, 

 and a yearly rent of 2000 merks (Reg. Privy Council Scot., x. 282). In 1613 the 

 value of the " duty of the tack of the assize-herrings," amounting to fourteen lasts, 

 which the Earl of Argyle rendered for Lochfyne, was estimated to be about 36 or 

 38 sterling (Mdrose Papers, i. 124). In 1598 the assize-herring from the "east 

 seas" was estimated to amount to 1120 diy "killing" (cod), which shows it was 

 sometimes paid in other fish; in 1656-57 it was equal to 130 sterling (Chalmers, 

 Caledonia, ii. 497) ; in 1629 Captain Mason claimed no less than 12,489, 7s. 

 sterling as the value, with interest, of the assize-herrings of the Hebrides and 

 North Isles granted to him by James for the years 1610-11, and not paid (State 

 Papers, Dom., cliv. 13). 



