THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 529 



the supplies. Thus, no considerable item could be missed 

 out of the system ; and if the public's eye should once be 

 thoroughly ppened to the evils of one part, it must of a 

 necessity open to the wrongs of the whole. * 



We have now to consider the effects of the system of 

 which a sketch is given above, in the short period between 

 its reaching the highest degree of perfection, and its final 

 break-down. For a summary view of those effects, I beg to 

 refer the reader to the statistical tables contained in Ap- 

 pendices E, F, G, H, and I. The leading fact at once 

 apparent from the first three of these, is : that the Grand 

 Fishery, to whose interests the other branches of her ring-fishery 

 were sacrificed, languisJied and decreased under extreme pro- 

 tection and regulation ; ivhereas the smoke-herring fishery, 

 being free in its own sphere of action, increased rapidly, 

 although the law precluded its produce from being prepared 

 to advantage. 



Next, it will be seen from Table G, that from 1845 

 downward, the greater part of the herring caught by Dutch- 

 men, was prevented from being cured, or prepared to advantage, 

 in order to keep up the prices of the lesser part. 



Exports of herring of course followed a course analogous 

 to that of production. Cured-herring exports remained 

 stationary, being prevented from increasing, firstly, by the 

 artificial dearth of the article and the lower prices of 

 foreign herring, and secondly by the elevated customs 

 tariffs against Dutch fish in most foreign countries, the 

 inevitable consequence of the prohibitive measures against 

 foreign herring in Holland. Smoked-herring, or " bucking," 

 being a cheap article, and fit for a poor man's food, was 

 better able to withstand these duties, and its exports 

 actually increased, though not in proportion to its pro- 



VOL. IX. E. 8. 2 M 



