432 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



fish either by salting it as " Zoutevisch " " labberdaan " (also 

 called abberdaan} or drying it as stock-fish, in both of 

 which conditions it was a considerable article of exporta- 

 tion. In the fresh state the two varieties of cod-fish most 

 caught bear the Dutch names of kabeljauw (also called 

 bakkeljauw or baccalauw *) and " Schelvisch " (the latter 

 appearing to correspond exactly to the English denomina- 

 tion of haddock}. 



There is no literature to my knowledge on this peculiar 

 branch of Dutch sea-fishery, and very few legislative acts 

 are on record relative to it ; whence its history must 

 necessarily be very incomplete and succinct. North-sea 

 cod-fishery had some importance as early as the establish- 

 ment of the Republic, as appears from the fact that two 

 men-of-war were sent " ter Dogge," i.e. to the Dogger bank, 

 for the cod-fishers' convoy, in 1589 ; \ and as the place, of 



* The latter word was also used now and then for cod salted and 

 dried. Bacallao is Spanish, Baccala is Italian, and Bacalhdo is 

 Portuguese, for dried cod. The assonance between these words and the 

 (now obsolete) Dutch term baccalauw is so striking that the question 

 can only be whether the word was derived by the Dutch from the 

 Roman languages, or the reverse. Holland in the iyth and i8th 

 centuries exported great quantities of salt and dried cod to Spain, and 

 never, so far as can be traced, imported any from that country ; 

 whence it would seem natural that the name should have been 

 exported together with the article. On the other hand, I am not 

 aware of the Dutch etymological derivation for " baccalauw," and I have 

 heard it said, upon authority which I can neither back nor question, 

 that in Spanish and Portuguese the word has something to do, 

 etymologically, with stick (Lat. Baculum). In the latter case, Bacalhao 

 &c., might be literal translations of the Dutch term Stokvisch, and 

 Holland, having first exported the article, might have re-imported its 

 Romanized name. I beg to refer the question to professional linguists. 

 Such dictionaries as I have at command do not show any close 

 relation between the Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese words, for a 

 cod-fish and a stick. 



f Res. Holl. 1589, p. 14, 836, 840. 



