UNDER THE TUDORS 87 



dogger-boats that fished in the North Sea and the Channel 

 turned out mariners by no means to be despised, men ac- 

 quainted with the coasts and the tides, able to manage sails 

 and educated to the sea. It was this aspect of the fisheries 

 which was mostly regarded by the statesmen of those times, 

 and for which the " political lent " and the protective legislation 

 were designed. 



The causes which led to the decay in the English fisheries 

 were no doubt various, but perhaps the chief one, and the one 

 on which most stress was laid in the latter part of the century, 

 was the Reformation. The very large consumption of fish due 

 to the observance of Lent and the numerous days of fasting, or 

 fish-days, has been referred to (see p. 58). The suppression 

 of the monasteries (1536-1539) and the dispersal of the inmates 

 and dependants must alone have had considerable influence, but 

 the relaxation of ecclesiastical rule among the laity which fol- 

 lowed was much more detrimental to the fisheries. The decay 

 of the sea-coast towns, so frequently spoken of in the reign of 

 Elizabeth, -was mainly attributed to this cause. Another in- 

 fluence which operated in the same direction, most markedly 

 towards the end of the century, was the great growth of the 

 fisheries and commerce of the Dutch. After the assertion of 

 their independence of Spain (1581), commonly called the 

 "abjuration of Philip," their fisheries developed with great 

 rapidity. One of the first acts of the new Republic (1582) was 

 the codification of the fishery statutes; and about this time 

 they applied to the deep-sea herring fishery the name of Great or 

 Grand Fishery (Groote Visscherye), as being " the chief industry 

 of the country and principal gold-mine to its inhabitants," in 

 contrast to the real gold-mines of Spain. They furnished the 

 greater part of Europe with cured herrings and other fish, and 

 the fish supply of England, and more particularly of London, 

 fell to a large extent into their hands. Their herring fishery 

 was carried on along our east coast, and the spectacle of great 

 fleets of foreign fishing vessels frequenting our waters, while 

 the native fisheries were falling to decay, roused envious and 

 jealous feelings in the breasts of patriotic Englishmen. 1 



Under the Tudors the efforts made to foster the sea fisheries 

 did not, as has been said, take the form of interfering with the 



1 Much information on the fisheries of the Netherlands will be found in Professor 

 A. Beaujon's History of Dutch Sea Fisheries, 1884. 



