THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 417 



inferior to what it was before the war. And now a 

 vestige of working regulations was for the first time 

 imposed upon the trade, but for reasons widely different 

 from those prevailing with the herring fishery. In order 

 to ensure their sailing together, i.e., in squadron or " Ad- 

 miralty," Holland decreed that no whaling vessels should 

 sail before April 28th, and the order was repeated in 

 several subsequent years.* 



The only object of this measure was of course to 

 promote the safety of the Greenland fleet. It was taken 

 at the request of a body representative of the whalers' 

 common interest, which now appears for the first time as a 

 duly organised corporation. 



A representation of the whaling interest did, indeed, 

 exist some years earlier. In 1665, two whaling ship-owners 

 named William Bastiaansz and A. den Hertog, sued for an 

 exemption from taxes for all whaling vessels, and in return 

 offered to supply the Republic's fleet with 1 200 sailors ; 

 and the offer was made in the name of, and upon authori- 

 sation by, "the community of those concerned in the 

 Greenland trade." f Request and offer were both declined, 

 but the event appears to have occasioned a closer organisa- 

 tion of those concerned in the whaling trade, and the 

 appointment of a definitive Committee, analogous to the 

 College of the Grand Fishery. In 1675 this Committee 

 was already invested with defined powers, and qualified to 

 act on behalf of all without especially naming its consti- 

 tuents, as appears from the fixation of a sailing date by the 

 States in the said year, upon the request of the community 

 of those interested in the whaling business at and about 

 Greenland," and not of one or more individuals as repre- 



* Res. Holl. 1675, April 4th ; 1677, March 27th. 

 f Ibid. 1665, May 6th and I2th. 

 VOL. IX. E. 8. 2 E 



