THE NEW SOCIETIES 95 



and encourage it. He therefore advised the king to 

 give the fishery " his signall and expresse Countenance, with 

 the Publick authority of the Parliament," and suggested 

 that the kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland should also be 

 roused to take an interest hi the scheme to be brought 

 forward. 1 



About the same time as Dr Worsley made this report, 

 two public spirited men, named Smith Watson and Simon 

 Watson, inspired by the same desire to see their fellow 

 countrymen enter upon the business of the fishery, set forth, 

 in great detail, " The Charge and Profitt of one Busse of 70 

 Tunes imployed one year in the fishery, by wch may be 

 computed the charge of a fleet," 2 showing, hi much the same 

 sanguine fashion as Charles I. had done thirty years before, 

 that the fishing industry was far more profitable than men 

 imagined, and that it was folly to continue to pay Dutch 

 fishermen to catch fish for English consumption. 



These same enthusiasts also drew up " A Modell of a Con- 

 troll for the Royal Fishery," in which they proposed that the 

 employees of the Association should be paid according 

 to the results of the fishing, " for this will stir them up 

 to be more industrious, when the more they work for his 

 Ma. the more they get to themselves." It would also, they 

 very pertinently remarked, be a check upon fraud, since no 

 man could defraud the Association without defrauding 

 his fellows, " who will therefor for their owne interest, look 

 one to another." The fishermen were to be paid according 

 to the catch of their own vessel, while the general officers 

 of the company were, they proposed, to be paid according 

 to the takings of the whole fishing fleet. The estimate 



1 Dr. Worstleyes Proposall about the Herring Fishing of these three 

 Kingdomes : Additional MSS. British Museum; Sea Fisheries, Temp. 

 Car. II. 



2 Sea Fisheries, Temp. Charles II.; Additional MSS. British Museum. 

 See Appendix. 



