4 THE DUTCH GRAND FISHERY 



Dutch cured herring was quickly recognised in the princi- 

 pal countries of Northern Europe, and Holland soon engaged 

 in a lucrative export trade in herring. Holland attained 

 her utmost greatness in the period of the Republic of the 

 United Netherlands ; it is a clear index to the manner in 

 which that position was gained, that this is also the epoch 

 in which her sea fisheries attained their greatest importance. 



As is usually the case, it was the increased importance of 

 Holland and particularly her growing maritime power which 

 brought her into conflict with other nations. So long as the 

 Low Countries had constituted merely a small province of 

 the great Spanish Empire, both English and Scotch had 

 been content to grant Dutch fishermen their protection and 

 had willingly allowed them to fish in British waters, upon 

 their acknowledging the sovereignty of the English king in 

 the seas about Britain, and purchasing licenses permitting 

 them to fish in these seas. The English kings had since 

 the time of Edward III. definitely asserted their claim to 

 sovereignty in the seas lying about the coasts of their king- 

 dom. Edward III. issued a proclamation making this 

 claim, and had his right admitted by the Treaty of Paris, 

 1360 ; this same right was upheld by Henry V., Henry VI., 

 and Henry VII. 1 



That this claim to sovereignty was much more than a 

 mere idle assertion is clear from the fact that in the reign 

 of Mary when the fishermen of the Low Countries wished 

 to seek new fishing grounds, there was granted to King 

 Philip's subjects in Flanders a twenty-one years' lease of 

 the fishings about the North Coast of Ireland, this lease 

 being granted in consideration of a fine and 1000 paid 

 annually to Sir Edward Fitton, Treasurer for Ireland. A 



1 Col. S.P. Dom. Car. II., vol. 339. "A collection of divers particulars 

 touching the King's Dominion and Sovereignty in ye Fishing as well in 

 Scotland as in the Brittish Ocean, presented Aprill, 1633. Chronicon 

 Malmsbury, John Haywood." 



