THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 381 



rival port of Altona tried to secure the staple market for 

 his place, and conferred with the Dutch Ambassador at 

 Copenhagen on the subject.* But there is no evidence of 

 this plan having led to any result, and Hamburg in the 

 next years retained the transit trade of Dutch herring 

 bound for the greater part of Germany. 



In the course of the year 1731, the Republic's Embassy 

 at Hamburg being then held by J. J. Mauricius, a diplo- 

 matist of great vigilance and activity, a series of complaints 

 about Scotch early herring being sold there without a 

 certificate reached the States-General ; and it appeared 

 from the ambassador's despatches that the Dutch brands 

 were gradually disappearing from the market. Mauricius 

 at the same time sent over a copy of a new convention 

 between Great Britain and Bremen, dated October i/th, 

 1731, which opened the latter market for Scotch herring 

 without any restriction. With Bremen the Republic had 

 no treaty, so to prevent the loss of that city's market for 

 early herring there was nothing to be done but leave the 

 Dutch at liberty to concur on equal terms with the Scotch 

 fishermen ; but this measure was never thought of. Ham- 

 burg, on the contrary, was still bound by the treaty of 

 1 609, and with that city a fresh exchange of memorials and 

 remonstrances was opened, the result of which, in 1732, 

 was another promise from the Senate that the treaty of 

 1609 should be strictly adhered to. Similar difficulties 

 arose in 1737, and led to an identical result, viz. the receipt 

 by the Dutch Ambassador, for the third time, of an " ex- 

 tractus protocolli " to the effect that the Hamburg Senate 

 was disposed to observe the treaty of 1609. And while 

 transmitting this document to his patrons, Mauricius 

 ventured to express his opinion " that they of the Grand 

 * Res. Holl. 1722, pp. 398, 531 ; 1723, p. 29. 



