494 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



Charles I., became a subservient supporter of his son ; and, 

 as Keeper of the Records in the Tower, he published an erudite, 

 but confused, book in which the absolute right of the King 

 of England to the dominion of the surrounding seas was 

 maintained. 1 In a very different kind of book, one Captain 

 John Smith repeated current arguments and misstateinents 

 on the same topic, especially with reference to the fisheries, 

 for he had been one of the agents of the Fishery Society of 

 Charles I. He makes a statement that must have caused 

 the king, if he saw it, some surprise at his modesty in asking 

 only 10,000 or 12,000 from the Dutch. He had heard, he 

 says, that the "composition" of the Hollanders for leave to 

 fish on our coasts was an annual rent of 100,000 and 

 100,000 "in hand": and as none of it had been paid into 

 the Exchequer, he computed the arrears then to be over 

 2,500,000, a sum which, he very truly remarked, and it 

 is the sole truth in the statement, " would come very happily 

 for the present occasions of his Majesty." Like many others 

 before him and after him, he advocated the building of a 

 fleet of busses and the prohibition of the Hollanders from 

 fishing in the British seas. 2 Still other writers laid stress 

 on the close connection between the sovereignty of the sea 

 and trade, commerce, and navigation ; 3 and after the war 

 broke out more pointed attacks were made against the Dutch. 

 They were accused of invading our fisheries without license 

 from the king, refusing to strike sail, disputing our dominion 

 of the seas, and by artifice supplanting us in trade and 

 commerce. 4 



None of those works was of much account, and the Ministry 

 felt the need of obtaining the services of an able writer to 

 stimulate ill-feeling against the Dutch, and in particular to 

 answer a well-reasoned pamphlet which the Dutch had widely 

 circulated in refutation of the reasons for the war given in 



1 Brief Animadversions on, Amendments of, and Additional Explanatory Records 

 to the Fourth Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England, concerning the Juris- 

 diction of Courts, compiled by the late famous Lawyer, Sir Edward Coke, Knight, 

 ct-c., 1669. 



2 England's Improvement Reviv'd: Digested into Six Hooks, 1670. 



3 Roger Coke, A Discourse of Trade, 1670. 



4 William de Britaine, The Dutch Usurpation, or a Brief View of tlie Behaviour of 

 the States-General of the United Provinces towards the King of England, 1672. 



