THE SECOND DUTCH WAR 445 



privileges and immunities, including power to erect houses for 

 the fishing trade wherever it was most convenient, a "limited 



o 



allowance " to be paid for the ground. An absolute monopoly 

 of the export of fish, fresh or cured, was granted to the com- 

 panies; foreigners were prohibited from curing herrings or 

 white fish on land, or erecting booths for the purpose, a pro- 

 vision aimed against the German merchants at Shetland, but 

 encouragement was given to foreign fishermen to settle and 

 become naturalised in Scotland, and even to become burgesses, 

 and they were to be exempt from taxation for seven years. 

 The importation of everything required for the fishery, in- 

 cluding "Holland nets," was to be free of custom dues; the 

 exports were to be similarly exempted, and the "teind" and 

 "assize" herrings were to be remitted for nine years. 



The provisions of this Act differed essentially from the 

 scheme proposed by Charles I. in 1630, which aroused so much 

 opposition, inasmuch as the companies were to be composed 

 solely of Scotsmen. The question of the territorial or 

 "reserved" waters belonging to Scotland was thus avoided. 

 It appears, indeed, that the Act was due to the representations 

 of the Royal Burghs, for in the preceding autumn they ex- 

 pressed a desire for the "erection of the fishing trade in 

 Scotland," and resolved to bring the subject before the next 

 Parliament. 1 Little was done in Scotland under this Act. 

 A company was formed, which, however, seemed more desirous 

 of misusing its privileges than of fostering the fisheries, if we 

 may judge from a petition of the burghs to the Lords of the 

 Exchequer, praying that the company might be restricted to 

 import nothing but what was necessary for the fishing trade. 

 The town of Musselburgh also was empowered to equip busses, 

 and various towns in Fife applied for and received permission 

 to fish in the northern seas. The Scottish society became an 

 incubus, and in 1690, when its function seems to have shrunk 

 to the mechanical exaction of a tax of 6 Scots per last 



1 Records Convent. Roy. Burghs, Hi. 523, 15th September 1660. The commis- 

 sioners, taking into consideration how advantageous it would be to the increase 

 of trade and the common weal of the whole burghs and kingdom "that the 

 fisching tread be erected within the samyn, and wnderstanding by thair registeris 

 and wther paperis in thair clarkis handis that the said tread hes bein endevoured 

 in former tymes but not takin full effect," instructed that the records be searched, 

 and the matter represented to Parliament. 



