82 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



The treaty of 1550 was confirmed, by which it was provided 

 that commerce and navigation were to be free; merchants 

 were to be at liberty to pass safely and freely with their 

 goods by land and sea, and to buy and sell ; pirates were to be 

 chased from the sea, and the subjects of either state, including 

 fishermen, were to be mutually protected from their attacks ; 

 but the fishery clause was precisely the same as before. 1 



It is thus evident that there was a great difference between 

 the English and the Scottish treaties with the Netherlands 

 respecting the right of fishery. The former contained a 

 separate clause, conceived in a broad and liberal spirit and 

 again and again renewed, providing for mutual freedom of 

 fishing everywhere on the seas, while no such agreement or 

 anything like it was made on the part of Scotland. The 

 Dutch fishing on the coast of Scotland was more important 

 to them than their fishing on the English coast, and there 

 is no doubt they strove to obtain the same privileges for it as 

 they received in England. The omission of a corresponding 

 clause in the Scottish treaties was in accordance with the long- 

 settled policy of the Scottish kings and Parliaments, and it 

 was that policy that James carried with him to England when 

 he attempted to reverse the established practice with regard 

 to the fisheries, and opened up the claims to mare clausum. 



There is, unfortunately, little contemporary evidence as to the 

 precise extent of the claim to the fisheries which was anciently 

 put forward in Scotland. The Acts of the Scottish Parliaments 

 do not help us very far, although they reveal the jealous and 

 conservative spirit previously referred to. Many statutes were 

 made prohibiting strangers from buying fish except such as 

 were salted and barrelled, and then only at free burghs ; con- 

 cerning the "assize-herring," of which so much was to be 

 heard; and the payment of customs by foreigners exporting 

 fish. The language of some of the Acts implied a certain con- 

 trol over foreign fishermen on the sea, 2 and all that we know of 



1 The heads of the treaty and the ratifications are given by Dumont, Corps Diplo- 

 matique, V. i. 507. The treaty itself is published in full by Bor, Vervolgh Vande 

 Nederlantssche Oorlogen ende Geschiedenissen, iv. fol. 48-52. 



2 E.g., in 1573, that " all maner of fischeris that occupyis the sey and vtheris 

 persounis quhatsumeuer " that catch herrings or white fish " vpon the coist or 

 within the His or outwith the samin within the Fyrthis " should bring them to 

 free ports to be sold. Acta Part. Scot., iii. c. 7. 



