170 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



States' officers contented themselves with forbidding any further 

 proceedings, and Brown then departed. 1 



The success of the mission was gratifying to James, and 

 the payment willingly made on this occasion by the Dutch 

 fishermen was often afterwards cited as an argument that they 

 had acknowledged the king's rights in the fishery. In the 

 United Provinces the matter was naturally viewed in another 

 light. The Dutch officers promptly reported the occurrence to 

 the directors of the Enkhuisen branch of the fishery ; the 

 authorities of the town complained to Barnevelt in energetic 

 terms, and the matter was brought before a meeting of the 

 States-General, who characterised the proceeding of Brown as 

 an " unheard of and intolerable innovation, contrary to the 

 existing treaties," and instructed their ambassador in London 

 to make a strong protest against it. Orders were, moreover, 

 issued to the commanders of the convoying ships of war to put 

 a stop to any further payments, and even to refuse to give 

 their names. Caron, who was indignant at the use to which 

 his friendly letter had been put, complained to the king and to 

 the Duke of Lennox. James explained that it was merely a 

 small tribute or tax which was levied in Scotland on all foreign 

 fishermen, and even on his own subjects, and had been leased to 

 the Duke of Lennox, who paid an annual rent for it into the 

 Exchequer. He had, he said, arranged that one of his ships of 

 war should be stationed on the fishing-ground for the security 

 of the fishermen and to protect them from pirates. Caron 

 declared that their High Mightinesses were exempt from all 

 imposts or taxes for their fishery, both by the treaties "and 

 otherwise," and he begged the king to give other instructions, 

 as the matter had occasioned great disquiet and alarm in 

 Holland. Lennox also tried to minimise the importance of 

 the measure. It was, he said, a small matter ; a mere " acknow- 

 ledgment" of a barrel of herrings or ten shillings from each 

 buss, which had to be paid thrice a year by all the king's 

 subjects who fished at the North Isles, and was willingly paid 

 by the English, French, German, and all other foreign fisher- 

 men. The ambassador says he was shown a printed book 

 in which it was stated that the Scottish Parliament had 



1 Muller, Mare Clausum, 107. Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 17,677, J, fol. 153 et 

 seq. Lansdowne MSS., 142, fol. 410. Reg. Privy Counc. Scot., xi. 605, 608. 





