12 THE DUTCH GRAND FISHERY 



settle the question, and, although two other embassies came 

 to London in January, 1621, and December, 1621, respec- 

 tively, to negotiate on the matter, no agreement had been 

 made when the ambassadors finally left England in 1623. 

 The Dutch were unwilling to quarrel with England, but at 

 the same time they did not care to be bound down by any 

 rigid international agreement which might injure their hea- 

 ring trade. When, therefore, they saw that no agreement 

 was likely to be made which would be in the interests of 

 that trade, they pursued a policy of vacillation which 

 rendered all negotiation futile. 1 



Numerous complaints were still made by the Scotch 

 fishermen against the Hollanders, and the Lords of the 

 Estates by letters dated 24th January, 1622, represented 

 the case to the king, urging him to take measures to pro- 

 tect his subjects. 2 Afraid lest James, moved by these 

 appeals, might adopt measures of coercion against the Dutch, 

 the States secretly consented to grant compensation to those 

 Scotchmen who had suffered loss, and later gave orders that 

 Dutch fishing vessels were not to approach so near the land 

 as to give offence to British fishermen, thus tacitly agreeing to 

 respect the ancient rule that foreign fishermen should not 

 come within sight of the British coast. 3 



James, who was never the man to push things to extremes, 

 henceforth contented himself with the continued asser- 

 tion of the " Mare Clausum " theory, and the occasional 

 definition of the distance which foreign fishermen must 

 maintain between themselves and the coast of the British 

 Isles. 



It was at this time that the project of the formation of 

 a fishery company to exploit the Scotch fisheries was first 

 mooted, the Duke of Lennox being the first to make the 



1 Beaujon's Essay, pp. 173, 174. 



2 CaL S.P. Dom. Car. II., vol. 339, Nos. 343-381. 

 8 Beaujon's Essay, p. 174. 



