JAMES I; MARE LIBERUM 3 



The man who discovered how to cure herring, and who 

 thus has the credit of having been the founder of the great- 

 ness of the Dutch salted herring trade, and, as a corollary, 

 of the maritime supremacy of Holland in after years, was 

 William Beukelsz, who about the middle of the fourteenth 

 century lived in Biervliet, now a \allage in the southern part 

 of Zealand. All agree upon this, and that he was a " Stuyr- 

 man," or skipper engaged in the herring fishery. Some, 

 indeed, claim that he was no Dutchman, but an Englishman 

 named Belkinson, who, finding his fellow-countrymen unsym- 

 pathetic and sceptical of his powers, carried his invention 

 of the mode of pickling and curing herring to Holland, 

 where he died in 1347 or 1397, for the date is a matter of 

 dispute.^ The Hollanders were not slow to recognise that 

 to the invention of Beukelsz they owed the greater part of 

 their quickly accumulating national wealth. A pubKc monu- 

 ment was erected to him at Biervliet, and it is on record that 

 the Emperor Charles V. honoured the memory of this founder 

 of a nation's prosperity by visiting his tomb. 



In its essentials, the Dutch method of curing herring 

 called " kaken," ^ is still identical with that invented by 

 Beukelsz, and described in the same fashion throughout 

 Dutch history. The fish are opened and gutted the moment 

 the net is hauled aboard ; they are salted carefully and then 

 packed in a peculiar fashion in barrels. In order to main- 

 tain the standard set up for Dutch " brand-herring," all 

 Dutch fishermen were compelled to practise this method 

 of curing the herring, while a set of stringent regulations 

 had to be observed with regard to the size of the mesh in 

 the net used, the quantity and quality of the salt employed, 

 and the times and place of fishing. The excellence of the 



1 " Fisheries and Fishermen of all Countries" {The Fisheries Exhibi- 

 tion Literature, vol. i. p. 37), also Beaujon's Essay, p. 11. 



- The barrels used were called " kaecken " or " kaecjes," hence the 

 name. See Beaujon's Essay, p. 11. 



