96 CHARLES II.; THE NEW SOCIETIES 



of wages is interesting as showing the rate of seamen's earn- 

 ings at the time. 1 



They followed this with a statement of " The Incomparable 

 Benefitt of the Fishery in his Maties Seas," 2 hi which they 

 showed how greatly the English were dependent upon their 

 enemies, the Dutch, for supplies of fresh fish of all kinds 

 and also for pickled herring, and how profitable an under- 

 taking the fishing was to the Dutchmen concerned, whose 

 own registers showed as many as 300,000 lasts of herring 

 taken in a single season, and sold at from sixteen to thirty- 

 six pounds the last. This state of affairs they maintained 

 to be a standing reproach to the English, who, by " sloath- 

 fulness and improvidence," allowed thousands of persons to 

 be idle at home, while strangers were coming hundreds of 

 leagues to their very coasts, and were there reaping this 

 rich harvest " which God and Nature sent to us." They 

 further pointed out that there was added to all this the 

 constant menace of the presence of a Dutch fleet of from 

 twenty to thirty warships, which were always cruising 

 off the English coast " under pretence of securing their 

 fishermen," and urged that England could take her proper 

 place among seafaring nations only by establishing her 

 fisheries on a proper basis. To bear out their statements 

 they then went into detail and gave " The charges of setting 

 forth a fishing fleet," in a document which is full of inter- 

 esting allusions to the fishing requisites of the time. 3 



Finally, they drew up a formal proposal for the founding 

 of a national fishery, 4 in which they embodied most of the 

 stock ideas of the old pamphleteers with regard to the 

 advantages to be derived from making this a national 

 industry. Their object was attained, however ; public 

 opinion was now on their side, and the king determined, 

 in some measure at least, to meet the desire of his subjects 

 on the matter. 



1 Detailed in Appendix. 2 Appendix. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 



