388 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



between 1715 and 1743,* and a further resolution of 

 July 7th, by which one ship of war was detached to 

 protect the herring fleet, no trace of the war's effects 

 upon the trade are visible in such documents as form 

 the basis of the present narrative. The institution of a 

 fishing company in Sweden, reported by the Dutch 

 ambassador in 1745, did not elicit any particular measure 

 from the States. Matters became different when, in 

 1750, Great Britain took steps for promoting her herring 

 fisheries on a very extensive scale, by chartering a company 

 with a capital of half a million sterling and the promise of 

 considerable premiums. Such protection as this could 

 not but reflect on the Dutch concurrents ; and from the 

 day on which Engl . nd definitely adopted the policy of 

 encouraging her fishery out of the public pocket, the 

 Dutch shipowners' cry was for having the same expedient 

 resorted to. In 1749, the Grand Fishery had spirit enough 

 left to decline a subsidy of fl. 50,000 in consideration of the 

 Treasury's exhausted state ;t but when England in the 

 next year set an example of paying fishermen out of the 

 public purse, no such generosity further occurred, and 

 Dutch fishers likewise began to look to the Exchequer for 

 the profits which the sea no longer yielded. Direct 

 premiums were not indeed resorted to at once. Protection 

 was first applied to the once Grand Fishery in the shape of 

 exemption from taxes. On the 6th of May, 1650, Holland 

 granted an immunity of the several provincial excise duties 

 for articles used in victualling herring-ships ; and as both 

 the number and the amount of these duties were consider- 

 able, the privilege was worthy of note. Three days 

 afterwards, the States-General allowed .an exemption of 



* Receuil v. d. Lely p. 43. 

 t Res. Holl. 1749, p. 274. 



