154 THE HERRING FISHERY 



of heavy customs duties. The Dutch herring 

 trade dwindled therefore, till in 1828 the 

 Amsterdam herring trade presented a petition 

 to the King asking that an order should be 

 issued calculated to create a close monopoly 

 for the sale of the Dutch product, and that the 

 whole of the fishery should be formed into one 

 association worked by a committee with power 

 to fix a minimum price and to regulate sales so 

 as to maintain that price — a trust, in short, of 

 the strictest kind.^ 



Lotd Dundonald's first pamphlet, which is 

 not even mentioned in the account of him in 

 the " Dictionary of National Biography," was a 

 timely one. In the year of its publication an 

 account by Dr. Anderson; who had been 

 appointed by the Lords of the Treasury to make 

 a report of the herring fisheries on the West 

 Coast of Scotland, was laid before a Committee 

 of the House of Commons ^ setting forth the 

 number of foreign vessels and men employed 

 in the herring fishery of Scotland during the 

 summer of 1784, the full text being subse- 

 quently published as " An Account of the Pre- 

 sent State of the Hebrides and Western Coasts 

 of Scotland." His figures as to the number of 

 boats employed are as follows : — 



^ There is one particular point in the Dutch herring regulations 

 which is worthy of notice with regard to the gutting of the herrings. 

 The gills, liver and stomach were the only parts to be taken away, 

 and this was done with the finger and thumb, and not with a knife. 



* Three similar Reports were issued in 1785, one in 1786, another 

 in 1798, which are full of curious and interesting information. 

 They may be consulted at the British Museum. 



