108 THE HERRING FISHERY 



were forbidden to fish in English waters 

 without Hcences which were granted at Scar- 

 borough Castle. With the decline of the 

 English sea power foreigners ceased to acknow- 

 ledge these claims, and the necessity for pur- 

 chasing a licence was disregarded. 



James I., who had a statesmanlike percep- 

 tion of the importance of the subject, appointed 

 a Commission to attend to the same matter 

 in 1622. Charles I. renewed certain old laws 

 for the benefit of English shipping, and 

 announced his intention of subjecting all fish- 

 ing in British waters to his royal licence and 

 recognisance in the shape of a special tax. 

 By this levy, enforced in the face of protest by 

 the Dutch, 2s, per last for the year was exacted 

 from the Dutch herring fleet, which had been 

 found by twelve British ships of war taking 

 herring in British fishing ground. Next year, 

 fifty-seven Dutch ships of war unsuccessfully 

 endeavoured to prevent the levying of the tax, 

 but the British admiral succeeded in collecting 

 no less than 20,000 florins as licence money. 



The claim of the Dutch to fish off our coasts 

 was embodied in the " Mare Liberum " of Grotius, 

 although that jurist had in fact never men- 

 tioned the Dutch claim to the right of fishing 

 upon foreign coasts, merely asserting in general 

 terms the principle of the freedom of the seas. 

 The English Government, however, as has been 

 stated above, thought it advisable to issue 

 Selden's " Mare Clausum " before coming to an 



