524 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



cised coast fishery on the North Sea shores, declined to 

 have them enforced within their precincts. The States 

 of these three provinces were so anxious to maintain their 

 fishers' liberty in the choice of their gear that they bought 

 it by the loss of a considerable advantage. A premium of 

 fl.25O was held out, by the. Decree of 1825, to every boat 

 from the province of Holland (bumboats included) which 

 should fish in the North Sea with hooks and lines,* without 

 interruption, between November i$th and February i$th 

 of any subsequent year. As this premium was not limited 

 to any definite number of years, it afforded considerable 

 encouragement to the coast-fishery of Holland ; and yet 

 the southern provinces chose to forego this benefit in order 

 to maintain their right to use the trawl. 



The premium awarded in 1825 to hook-and-line-fishery 

 during winter was by no means a superfluous bounty. 

 Hook-and-line fishery was, upon the whole, a good substi- 

 tute for winter trawling. Plaice, turbot, &c, besides cod 

 and haddock, were caught on the hooks ; whence, though 

 trawling was the more convenient, and it would appear the 

 cheaper of the two methods, the other offered better chances 

 of a fair return. But this was not the only consideration. 

 Trawling was till then the coast-fishers' chief, if not their 

 only, source of livelihood in winter, after the close of the 

 smoke-herring business ; and, being forbidden to use the 

 trawl, they were, in common equity, entitled to some 

 equivalent to keep them from starving. I have shown in 

 former chapters that severe penury used to prevail in the 

 coast villages during winter ; and the premium for hook- 

 and-line fishery during prohibited trawling time was, at the 

 outset, a preventive measure against over-burdening of the 

 Poor 'Boards. It soon wrought a considerable increase of 

 * " Beug- of hoekwant? 



