462 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



on the 24th of February 1496, which likewise stipulated, 

 in Latin bad but explicit, the entire freedom of fisheries on 

 either side. " Conventum, concordatum et conclusum est" 

 says the document, "quod Piscatores utriusque Partis 

 Partium praedictarum (cujuscunque conditions existanf) 

 poterunt ubique Tre, Navigare per Mare, secure Piscari 

 absque aliquo Impedimenta Licentia seu salvo Conductu" 

 This treaty continued in force for more than a century and 

 a half. 



The protection of the Sovereigns of Scotland was from 

 very early times no less valuable than that of England 

 to the Dutch fishermen, who as far back as the earliest 

 stage of their history appear to have worked the more 

 northerly parts of the North Sea and the Scottish coasts. 

 A privilege granted to them by the King of Scotland is 

 mentioned in the year 1341 ; and a treaty concluded at 

 Binche on February I9th, 1540, between the Emperor 

 Charles the Fifth (then Sovereign of the Low Countries) and 

 James the Fifth of Scotland, stipulates that the fishermen of 

 both nations shall be reciprocally protected against pirates 

 and indemnified for damage received in time of peace at 

 the hands of subjects of either state. 



The second treaty of Binche, dated December I5th, 1550, 

 explicitly stated " circa Piscationem ac liberum usum Maris, 

 ea quae per Tractatum anno 1 540 . . . inita conchtsa ac conventa 

 fuerint debite ac sincere observari debebunt" In virtue of this 

 treaty, which was once more confirmed in 1594, and of the 

 London treaty of 1496, the freedom and reciprocal protec- 

 tion of sea-fisheries was a settled point of international 

 law between Great Britain and Holland, towards the close 

 of the 1 6th century. 



But at this period the Low Countries, hitherto an obscure 

 province of a continental Empire, not only astonished the 



