THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 563 



Improvements in other fishing material went hand in 

 hand with this renovation of the fleet. Sea-fishery ex- 

 hibitions, as will be remembered, were very frequent about 

 the time now spoken of; and in each of them the 

 Netherlands exhibits outshone those of preceding years. 

 Objects considered and reported upon as novelties at 

 Amsterdam in 1861, and at Bergen (Norway) in 1865, 

 proved antiquated in 1867 at the Hague. British cotton 

 net-yarns created a sensation at the first-named exhibition ; 

 Dutch cotton yarns, and nets made out of them, the 

 produce of several inland factories which did a brisk busi- 

 ness in them, were medalled at the latter. And it is to 

 be noticed that this strenuous expansion of the whole of 

 the fishery business was obtained without a single florin 

 of subsidy. Up to 1861 Government had contributed 

 towards equipping a " hospital ship," the nature of which 

 has been explained in a former chapter. The subsidy had 

 been gradually lessened, and declined by the common 

 herring shipowners in 1861, since when no " hospital-ship ' 

 was sent out. 



The organization of the herring shipowning business in 



shipowner to sell them the whole of his ships and materials, and take 

 the direction of their business. Any one inclined to pursue patriotism 

 into superstition may read a warning against selling the nationality of 

 a ship or a business in this Emden company's fate. Their ships, 

 managers, and management were Dutch j they fished in the same 

 seas and seasons as Dutch ; and yet they never could make catches 

 or returns like Dutch vessels of exactly the same description. While 

 Dutch shipowners, being entirely unprotected, were making handsome 

 dividends, the Emdeners, who have a " protective " customs tariff to 

 shield, and an immense national market to support them, have for ten 

 years hardly shown their shareholders the colour of their money, and 

 were in 1881 still deeply indebted to their Government for subsidial 

 loans not paid back. 



202 



