THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 559 



of the fraud of course were themselves the victims of their 

 short-sighted artifice. The alteration of assay rules in 1858 

 contributed to spoil the market. Under the Regulation of 

 1827 herring was assayed and sorted with tolerable accuracy 

 immediately upon being landed, and a preliminary mark was 

 generally put on the barrels to certify the result. The large 

 barrels, loosely packed as they were on board, where close 

 and careful packing of herring was an impossibility, were next 

 sold to wholesale dealers, and by them delivered into the 

 hands of packers, who transferred the fish to barrels of the 

 regulation size, shape and construction, and the article was, 

 by this re-packing, prepared to receive the official brand 

 for exportation. These packers, who were alone entitled 

 to transfer herring from the " sea barrel " (ton zeestuks) into 

 the brand-barrel, were public officials, and under oath, like 

 the assayers themselves, whence there was a fair certainty 

 that the contents of the " sea-barrels " should be transferred 

 to the exportation barrel without any tampering ; and the 

 barrels issuing from the packers' hands could be, and were 

 generally, branded by the assayer with the exportation 

 brand, without renewed examination of their contents. 

 Under the Regulation of 1858, which was the first piece of 

 work prepared by the new College (and owned by them in 

 their Report for 1859 to have been deficient in several 

 points) there were no sworn "packers," and the assayers' 

 own verification was required for the exportation brand as 

 well as for the first marking of the sea-barrel ; the latter 

 operation being still a requisite to shield first-hand buyers 

 against fraud. Now, however diligent the assayers (and as 

 to their diligence and honesty there are no serious complaints 

 to my knowledge) it was beyond their power to effectually 

 and twice control the immense quantities of fish subjected 

 to them under the spur and hurry of the early " hunting " 



