528 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



of Denmark; but the firm attitude of the States -General, 

 whose fleets were then all-powerful, cooled the ardour of 

 the Danes. Denmark also raised difficulties in connection 

 with the cod-fishing in the northern seas. In 1616 foreigners 

 were prohibited from fishing either at Fseroe, Iceland, or on 

 the coast of Norway, an injunction renewed in 1636 and 

 1639, and various limits were assigned with respect to the 

 cod-fishing at Iceland. In 1636 the Norwegian Government 

 declared that the exclusive right of fishing pertained to 

 subjects within a distance of four to six Scandinavian leagues 

 from the coast, which is equal to from sixteen to twenty-four 

 geographical miles. The Danish claim to mare clausum also 

 included a monopoly of trade in those remote regions, and 

 the Hanseatic towns as well as the Dutch were forbidden 

 to carry on traffic with the natives. But the efforts of Den- 

 mark to preserve a monopoly of fishing and trading in the 

 Arctic seas were intermittent and ineffectual. The great 

 Dutch Arctic Company (Noordsche Compagnie), by their 

 charter granted in 1614, were entitled not only to the ex- 

 clusive right, so far as concerned Dutchmen, "to trade and 

 fish from the United Provinces on or to the coasts of the 

 lands between Nova Zembla and Davis' Strait," including 

 Spitzbergen, Barent's Island, and Greenland, but also to the 

 possession and fishery of any islands they might discover in 

 those seas. The rights granted to this powerful company 

 were thus directly opposed to the Danish claim to mare 

 clausum, and owing to the preponderating naval force of 

 the United Provinces, which was behind them, they eventually 

 prevailed. In February 1691, after the defeat by the French 

 of the allied British and Dutch fleets off Beachy Head and 

 the suspension of the Dutch whale -fishing by reason of the 

 war, King Christian V. issued another decree prohibiting whale- 

 fishing at Greenland to all but Danish subjects; and in the 

 following year Hamburg was forced to conclude a treaty 

 with Denmark to enable her citizens to carry on fishing 

 and navigation in Davis' Strait. 



It was at this time, nevertheless, that Denmark substituted 

 a fixed limit at other parts of her dominions for her previous 

 vague and general claim to maritime sovereignty. By a 

 decree of 26th June 1691, the sea between the south coast 



