THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 497 



assumed that, as a consequence of the re-establishment of 

 the premium system for all the several branches, the 

 revival of sea-fisheries was general, and shared by the 

 other branches besides the Grand Fishery. At any rate, 

 such a revival of the fisheries and the trades dependent on 

 them was counted upon as certain after the peace of 

 Amiens, as is proved by a publication dated April 22nd, 

 renewing the prohibition issued by the States-General in 

 1778,* against exporting well-boats for cod-fishery. 



As an instance of the spirit of enterprise infused into 

 those concerned in sea-fisheries in the year 1802, the institu- 

 tion of an African whaling society may be cited. A report 

 had spread that whales were very plentiful about the Cape 

 of Good Hope, so that, although they were of a small size 

 and yielded train of an inferior quality, a renewal of the 

 ancient Greenland Company's first successes might be hoped 

 for. Accordingly a corporation styling itself " South Sea 

 Whaling Company " was started in 1802, and subscriptions to 

 it soon reached the considerable figure of 1.790,000. They 

 obtained a Government charter of monopoly to last twenty 

 years. Government (then the Executive Board called 

 " Staatsbewind " ) indeed judged all monopolies "hateful 

 and contrary to that equality " of all citizens, which formed 

 one of the fundamental principles of the Batavian 

 Republic ; but they undertook to reconcile monopoly and 

 " equality " by an ingenious wording of the charter. As a 

 precaution against their superseding the ancient Greenland 

 whalery, the new company were obliged by their charter 

 to take a one-eighth share in every vessel sailing to Green- 

 land, if the owners of such a vessel should demand it, and to 

 a maximum of one-fourth of the company's paid up capital. f 



* See part ii. chap. iii. 



t Vcrvolg op Wagenaar, vol. xlv. pp. 54, 327. 

 VOL. IX. E. 8. 2 K 



