132 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



against Richard Prestwood and Richard Perkins 

 " the principal agents in this contempt." 



From this time onwards the British whale 

 fisheries at Spitsbergen declined gradually. The 

 whales in the Bays were now scarce and shy, so that 

 it became the custom of the Dutch and Basque 

 whalers to seek them on the edge of the ice to the 

 northward and westward. The English whalers 

 clung to the Bays long after fishing there had ceased 

 to be profitable, and this, combined with squabbles 

 at home between the " Company " and the " Inter- 

 lopers/' led to the disappearance of the British 

 whalers, so there is a distinct gap between the first 

 period of British whaling and the effort by the South 

 Sea Company to resuscitate the trade in 1724. 



In 1626 Charles I. licensed Nathaniel Edwards 

 and his partners as a Scottish Company, and their 

 competition had to be bought off by the Greenland 

 Company ; for instance, materials for the equipment 

 of the whalers were bought by the latter from 

 Edwards. The competition of the Hull inter- 

 lopers was a further drawback. In the interests 

 of King Charles's soap monopoly the use of 

 of Greenland oil for soap-making was prohibited, 

 so that the conditions were not very favourable for 

 the growth of an industry already threatened by 

 the severe competition of the Dutch. 



The " Society of Soapinakers in the City of 

 Westminster in the County of Middlesex " had the 

 monopoly of soap manufacture and the right of 

 search. Proceedings had soon to be taken against 



