JAMES II. AND AFTER 527 



They are interesting as being the first definitions of the kind 

 which apply to the coasts of America, and they do not mate- 

 rially differ from the terms used in the treaty of 1818, the 

 interpretation of which has given rise to so much dispute. 

 Another example for a different purpose is to be found in a 

 convention between France and Algeria in 1689, which estab- 

 lished a limit of ten leagues along the Mediterranean coasts 

 of France in connection with the operations of the Barbary 

 corsairs. 1 



In the treaty above referred to, between Great Britain and 

 France, the rights of trading and fishing went together. This 

 was a very common thing in those times, particularly in 

 remote seas, where the two pursuits were often combined, 

 and it was especially the case in the northern seas which 

 were supposed to be under the sway of the King of Den- 

 mark. The disputes which occurred between Denmark and 

 the United Provinces of the Netherlands are of interest in this 

 regard, since they reveal the methods and the stages by which 

 a defined boundary was eventually substituted for a general 

 claim to maritime dominion. They show, moreover, that at 

 the end of the disputes Great Britain stood by the side of 

 Holland in opposing the Danish pretension to mare clausum, 

 and was altogether in favour of the free sea. It was ap- 

 parently the assertion of James I. to a monopoly of the whale- 

 fishing at Spitzbergen (see p. 181) that induced Denmark to 

 put forward a similar pretension with regard to Greenland. 

 As early as 1615 a Danish man-of-war demanded a contribution 

 from Dutch whalers for liberty to fish there, and the King 

 of Denmark complained to the States - General that their 

 subjects were carrying on the fishery without his license and 

 contrary to his rights. The Dutch opposed this claim and 

 sent armed ships to the scene, which kept the Danes from 

 active interference. A little later, in 1623, Denmark raised 

 fresh complaints in connection with the fishing at Jan Mayen, 

 an island discovered by the Dutch, and which, therefore, 

 according to the charter of the Dutch Arctic Company, be- 

 longed to them. In 1639 Danish men-of-war again interfered 

 with Dutch whalers, this time at Spitzbergen, in virtue of 

 a decree prohibiting fishing without a license from the King 



1 Rayneval, Institutions du Droit de la Nature et des Gens, i. c. x. 



