178 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



different nature from all other fisheries, and requires 

 the utmost application of a separate distinct 

 company with a considerable joint stock to bring it 

 to perfection. 



The joint stock raised by 4 and 5 William and 

 Mary to form a body corporate for the Greenland 

 trade, and the 7 and 8 William, excusing them from 

 duty, failed because of their small stock, want of 

 experience, and opposition of foreign ships in 

 Greenland Seas, of which there were a hundred or 

 more. So the Act of Anne, 1702, made it lawful for 

 any of Her Majesty's subjects to obtain the 

 privileges of this Company. 



" The present Undertakers will, by the great 

 number of adventurers and the extensiveness of 

 their stock, be enabled to surmount the difficulties 

 which overwhelmed the earlier company, whose 

 capital was but forty thousand pounds, and they 

 therefore apply for a bill giving them preference 

 over others " ; as they claim to know the procedure 

 of the former company having their books in their 

 possession, they are first in the field and " that the 

 design manifestly tending to the increase of nayjga- 

 tion, and the benefit of all His Majesty's subjects, it 

 is humbly hoped, will receive countenance and 

 encouragement." 



In a broadside (1720) entitled " Reasons Humbly 

 submitted to the Honourable House of Commons 

 for A Clause to prevent His Majesty's being de- 

 frauded of the great Customs on Whalebone/' it is 

 stated that those who design to defraud the customs 



