CHAPTER V 



THE BOUNTY SYSTEM 



The whalers apply for State assistance The South Sea Company 

 and the Whale Fisheries Development of the British whaling- 

 industry as a result of the bounty stimulus Description of 

 Arctic whaling- voyages. 



AT the very commencement of the eighteenth 

 century a petition was presented to Parliament by 

 the merchants who had raised a joint stock for 

 recovering, and effectually carrying on the Green- 

 land whale fishery with vigour, in which application 

 was made for certain special privileges. 



Notwithstanding the encouragement given by the 

 previous Acts (4 and 5 William and Mary; 7 and 8 

 William; i Anne, 1702), the Greenland whale 

 fishery had been neglected by the English and 

 carried on to a vast extent by the Dutch, 

 Hamburgers, and others, employing near four 

 hundred sail of ships in such service ; by which they 

 were enabled to import to this Kingdom vast 

 quantities of whalebone and oil, and vend the same 

 at exorbitant prices, whereby the subject was 

 aggrieved and large sums drawn out of the 

 Kingdom. The Greenland whale fishery is of a 



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