426 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



Fishery, allowed exemption from excise duties on victuals, 

 wine, spirits, &c., consumed on board.* The measure was 

 indeed taken on a very liberal scale, for it was extended 

 not only to the victuals actually consumed, but, as regards 

 bread, to the whole quantity taken on board, even though 

 some parts of it should be brought home again. 

 Immunities of a similar nature were at the same time 

 allowed to other branches of fishery ; but there is reason to 

 believe that whalers derived peculiar profit from theirs, as 

 they were in the habit of dealing in divers commodities 

 with the natives of the northern countries whither they 

 were bound. It will be seen in another chapter that this 

 propensity to do spurious business was one of the principal 

 causes of the difficulties with Denmark; and it may be 

 assumed that Dutch whalers upon occasion were not only 

 petty tradesmen, but did by no means disdain smuggling 

 on foreign coasts, towards which they were of course 

 peculiarly benefitted by having some of the articles most 

 heavily taxed in all countries at their disposal duty-free, by 

 the States-General's express licence. Considerable light is 

 thrown on this feature of the Greenland trade by a curious 

 controversy kept up in the often-named periodical, ' Den 

 Koopman,' in the course of the years 1772 and 1773/f A 

 free-spoken letter-writer styling himself " Lubertus 

 Piscator " is especially communicative on the subject. The 

 results of whaling in itself, he says, now amount to 

 average losses ; and the trade is kept going by the 

 profits of a fraudulent commerce in goods exported free of 

 duty and smuggled ashore on the coasts of Norway and 

 Scotland. These irregular profits are mostly pocketed by 

 the manager (boekhouder) of the ship and a few of the 



* Res. Holl. 1750-52, passim, Gr. PL &., viii. 1253. 

 f Vol. iv. p. 33, 90, 194, 199, &c. 



