554 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



salt excise was established simultaneously with the new 

 Customs tariff on fish.* Some control against fraud is of 

 course inevitable whenever an article subject to excise 

 duty is exempted from it when consumed for one special 

 purpose ; and the object of the new regulation was to 

 make that control as easy as possible for fishermen, as a 

 compensation for eventual damage by foreign competition 

 attendant upon the reduced tariff. 



A regulation upon assays of herring was made in time 

 before the opening of the herring season of 1858.! The 

 new rules were as simple as was consistent with main- 

 taining the accustomed appearance of Dutch brand-herring. 

 The old distinctions of " full-maatjes," " ijlen," any of these 

 either sound or " wrak" were maintained, with a brand for 

 each. To these was added a new brand for " overnight," 

 or herring cured the day after its capture, which process 

 was now permitted, whereas former regulations forbade 

 such herring to be cured. A new distinction was likewise 

 made between herring caught in deep sea, under the North 

 Sea coast, and in the Zuider Zee ; the latter two qualities 

 being now allowed to be cured as well as the one first 

 named. Every barrel of assayed herring was thus to carry 

 two brands, one stating its description, and the other where 

 it was caught. The figure of the brand, formerly repre- 

 senting a lion, was altered into the royal crown ; and it 

 will be shown in the next chapter what evil consequences 

 attended that alteration. Assayers were to brand all 

 herring presented to them, unless the barrel were defective, 

 or not stamped with the owner's mark and filled from 

 top to bottom with herring of one single description. Care 

 was thus taken that there should be a Dutch brand as of 



* Law of Dec. iith, 1857 (Staatsblad, No. 123). 

 f Decree of January iith, 1858 (Staatsblad, No. 2). 



