218 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



with a stock of 6743, 6s. 8d. a clear profit of 18,270 might 

 be earned in one year. 



This alluring prospect was no doubt encouraging to Coke 

 and his friends ; but he learned from Hay some further infor- 

 mation which must have been disquieting. He was told 

 that the Scottish people would not permit any foreigners 

 to fish within twenty-eight miles of their coast, or within 

 the lochs, the fishings there being reserved for the natives; 

 that by the laws of Scotland any stranger found fishing 

 within these limits was liable to confiscation of goods and 

 loss of life, citing as an example the story of the barbarous 

 treatment by James V. of the Dutch fishermen who had 

 transgressed the "reserved waters" by fishing in the Firth 

 of Forth. 1 This point about the reserved waters was indeed 

 the main difficulty which soon confronted the fishery scheme. 

 To be successful, the fishing must be carried on along the 

 Scottish coast and at the Isles, for it was there the great 

 shoals of herrings resorted, but the objections of the Scottish 

 Parliament, Council, and burghs had first to be overcome. 2 



The first important step was a declaration by the king 

 of his intentions. On 12th July he wrote to the Privy 

 Council of Scotland, laying before them his scheme for a 

 great fishery association. With the advice of his Privy 

 Council in England, he said, he had maturely considered 

 that " als weill in thankfulnesse to Almighty God as for 

 the benefite of all our loving subjects we ought no longer 

 to neglect that great blessing offered unto us in the great 

 abundance of fishe upon all the coasts of these Yllands. To 

 the end we may at lenth injoy with more honnour these 

 rights whiche properlie belong to our imperiall crowne and 

 ar vsurped by strangers, We have considered of a way 

 whiche in tyme by God's favour may produce this good 

 effect and also increasse our navigatioun and trade. And 

 becaus this worke concerneth equallie all our three King- 

 domes and must thairfoir be vndertakin and ordered by 

 commoun counsell and assistance," he had taken the oppor- 

 tunity of a meeting of the Scottish Parliament to send his 



1 P. 77. 



2 State Papers, Dom., clii. 63 ; clxv. 201 ; clxxx. 100. Rec. Conv. Roy. Buryhs, 

 iii. 300 et seq. 



