356 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



This irregular warfare was not carried on without consider- 

 able outlays of money. Sums averaging up to thirty 

 thousand florins were annually granted to the Fishery 

 College for the warlike armament of the busses ; and 

 subsidies very much larger were granted to the Admiralty 

 Boards to provide the necessary convoying ships. In 1627 

 the latter subsidy was carried to one million,* to be fur- 

 nished by the several provinces, each for a part proportioned 

 to its interest in the business, and twenty-four men-of-war 

 were sent to protect the busses in the said year. Indeed, 

 during a series of years the main part of the States of 

 Holland's Acts relative to the herring fishery consists of 

 money grants to the College and the Admiralties, and 

 exhortations to the latter boards to be prompt in equipping 

 the necessary vessels. The difficulties with England about 

 the herring fishery in the North Sea, and the insecurity 

 arising from the British Sovereign's manifestly hostile 

 intention to Dutchmen fishing on his shores, of course 

 made matters still worse for the trade. It is indeed a 

 marvel that it should, in spite of so many difficulties, have 

 attained a high degree of development. Yet such was the 

 case, as appears from Meynert Semeyns' curious little book 

 already quoted, and which, written in 1639,! gives a very 

 high idea of the state of the business at the time, even if 

 due allowance is made for a tendency to exaggeration 

 natural in the author as a citizen of Enkhuizen, then one 

 of the most important among the herring-fishing towns. 



With Semeyns it is a point beyond dispute that Provi- 

 dence has specially destined the Netherlands to be the 

 centre of the world's herring fishery. " The Dutch," he 



* Res. Holland, pp. 164, 166, 247. 



f Meynert Semeyns, Corte beschryvinge over de Raring visscherye 

 in Hollandt. 



