90 CHARLES II. 



had already been captured. As a result of this petition the 

 Council ordered a frigate of 24 guns to proceed from 

 the coast of Scotland to Iceland. ^ Throughout the period, 

 indeed, the only fishery conducted without fear of molesta- 

 tion was the whale fishery of the Muscovy Company in 

 Greenland ; this Company dispatched annually to the North 

 some three vessels with thirty-seven harpooners and steers- 



men 



2 



In such times of trouble as these, there was little to tempt 

 either companies or individuals to risk capital in an attempt 

 to revive the fishmg industry of Britain. The attempt 

 was contemplated ; Sir Phineas Andrews in 1654, and 

 Simon Smith in 1660, were allowed certain exemptions from 

 Customs and Excise, upon their undertaking the Fishery, 

 but neither of them seems to have carried his plans into 

 effective execution.^ Except for various spasmodic efforts 

 round the coast, therefore, the fishing industry was in a 

 state of extreme depression when Charles 11. , at the Restora- 

 tion, returned to Britain. It was not long before Charles 

 evinced the same desire for the encouragement of the fishing 

 industry that had actuated his father and his grandfather. 

 He first directed his attention to the Scotch fisheries, and, 

 on 12th June, 1661, had an Act passed authorising the 

 erection of companies for the promotion of fisheries, called 

 an " Act for the Fishings and erecting of companies for 

 promoteing the same." ^ The new Societies for the Fishing 

 were to be open to such Scotsmen and naturaHsed Scotsmen 

 as subscribed to their funds not less than five hundred merks 

 Scots. They were to have similar privileges to those of 

 their predecessors, and were to be managed by a body of 



1 Cal. S.P. Dom. Commonwealth, vol. 228, No. 44. 



2 Ibid. vol. 124, No. 62. 



^ " A Collection with some observations, touching the Royal Fishery of 

 Great Britain and Ireland " (1696), p. 3. 



•» Act. Pari. Scotland, vol. vii. pp. 259-261. 



