150 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



of fishing, as (either by the multitude of strangers, which do 

 preoccupy those places, or by the injuries which they receive 

 most commonly at their hands) our subjects are constrained to 

 abandon their fishing, or at the least are become so discouraged 

 in the same, as they hold it better for them to betake them- 

 selves to some other course of living, whereby not only divers 

 of our coast-towns are much decayed, but the number of 

 mariners daily diminished, which is a matter of great conse- 

 quence to our estate, considering how much the strength there- 

 of consisteth in the power of shipping and use of navigation." 

 It was therefore both just and necessary, the king continued, 

 to take lawful means to put an end to these inconveniences, 

 although he had no intention, as he desired the world to take 

 notice, to deny his neighbours "those fruits and benefits of 

 peace and friendship" which might justly be expected at his 

 hands in honour and reason. He therefore gave notice to all 

 the world, that after 1st August 1609, "no person of what 

 nation or quality soever, being not our natural born subject, 

 be permitted to fish upon any of our coasts and seas," " until 

 they have orderly demanded and obtained licenses from us," 

 or the commissioners appointed at London and Edinburgh. 

 The licenses were to be renewed yearly, "upon pain of such 

 chastisement as shall be fit to be inflicted upon such wilful 

 offenders. 1 



The prohibition of unlicensed fishing in the British or Irish 

 seas was general in its character, and applied to all foreigners 

 indifferently. But it was well understood to be aimed at the 

 Dutch. There is no evidence to show that any steps were 

 taken to induce the hundred or so of French boats that took 

 part in the herring-fishing on the east coast to obtain licenses ; 

 and though the Earl of Salisbury wrote a long letter to the 

 English ambassador at Madrid, explaining the reasons that had 

 induced the king to issue the proclamation, it does not appear 

 that the numerous Spanish fishermen who caught mackerel off 

 the coast of Ireland and the south-west coast of England were 

 ever interfered with, or asked to apply for licenses. 2 



In the United Provinces the important step taken by the King 



1 State Papers, Dom., xlv. 24. Proc. Coll., No. 11. 



2 Salisbury to Cornwallis, 8th June 1609. Winwood's Memorials of Affairs of 

 State in the Reigns of Q. Elizabeth and K. James /., iii. 49. 



