UNDER THE STUARTS: JAMES I. : A NEW POLICY 163 



of that kind among the records in your custody, we do 

 hereby require you to make your personal repair hither to 

 seek out all such precedents and papers as are remaining 

 there and do any way concern that business," and to hold 

 them ready for inspection. 1 



This search was doubtless in connection with the subject 

 of the assize - herrings mentioned in the next chapter, but 

 that the queen's scheme had been revived is evident from 

 the action of Sir Noel Caron. As soon as he got wind 

 of it, he wrote hurriedly to the States -General stating that 

 the king had assigned to the queen for twenty-one years 

 the revenue to be derived from taxing the herring - busses, 

 and that no one would be allowed to fish on the coasts 

 of England or Scotland without her consent. 2 This letter 

 was at once considered by the Dutch Government. A com- 

 mittee was appointed to look into the treaties bearing on 

 the question and the instructions which had been given to 

 the ambassadors in 1610, and to report as to what action 

 should be taken ; but it was finally resolved to await further 

 developments in England before interfering, and at the 

 beginning of November Caron was able to announce that 

 the danger had passed. 3 



At this period there were other disputes with England 

 that caused apprehension in Holland. One referred to the 

 trade in cloth, and in a proclamation which prohibited the 

 export of wool 4 James took the opportunity to extol the 

 commanding situation of the British Isles for navigation and 

 trade, and to draw a parallel between the commodities of 

 wool on land and fish in the sea, "which," he said, "are 

 the Adamants that draw and govern all other Trade and 



1 Archbishop Abbot and Lord Chancellor Ellesmere to Thomas Wilson, 24th 

 August 1614. State Papers, Dom., Ixxvii. 80. It is endorsed, "The letter to me, 

 24th Aug. 1614, sending for me from Harford and for the transcribing an 

 abstract of all things out of my papers which might concern his Majesty's juris- 

 diction on the sea, which I did and delivered it to Mr Attorney-General, Sir 

 Francis Bacon, by the commandment of the Lord Chancellor and the Archbishop 

 of Canterbury." 



2 Caron to States- General, ~r 1614. Brit. Mut. Add. MSS., 17,677, H. 



3 Muller, op. eit., 91, 92. 



4 26th September 1614. 



