30 CHARLES I. 



branded according to quality by Government inspectors.^ 

 These regulations had been instituted by the Dutch Govern- 

 ment, in order that the reputation of Dutch cured herring 

 might not be injured by the sale of inferior fish. 



The Enghsh being anxious to protect the native fisher- 

 men, likewise sought to discourage the Dutch from landing 

 their fish in England, and therefore, from motives of their 

 own, endeavoured to make Dutch fishermen abide by Dutch 

 law ; the Enghsh regulation was, that if the Dutch landed 

 fish in any town on the coast of England, they were required 

 to sell the fish to the freemen of the place ; they were not 

 permitted to barrel them on shore, or to sell them to any 

 except the free burghers — that is to say, there was to be 

 no interference with the trading privileges of the free towns. 



A fishing engaged in apparently exclusively by the Enghsh 

 was the pilchard fishing, which took place in the west country 

 from Dartmouth and Plymouth to Land's End ; this fishing 

 went on during July, August and September, and some- 

 times continued into October, " Plymouth is ye pryme place 

 of that fishing and Pincens in Cornwall." - 



In the seventeenth century, both English and Scotch 

 companies sent vessels regularly to the Greenland whale 

 fishing. This fishing had, by patent, been granted to the 

 " Muscovie " Company, with the result that there had 

 been disputes between this Enghsh company and a Scotch 

 company estabhshed " upon a Scott patent," the consequence 

 being that Scotland had been "disapoynted of Oyles." ^ 

 It is thus evident that, although EngHshmen and Scotch- 

 men were both jealous of the common rival, HoUand, 

 they had not yet come to look upon themselves as 

 one united people. Scotchmen were anxious that Enghsh- 



' Beaujon's Essay, p. 37 et sequitur. 



- MSS. 32.1.16, Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. "Memorandum con- 

 cerning the fishing along the coast of England, Cornwall, etc." 



- Ibid. 



