CHKONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY. 201 



tlien out of employment ; and that the encouraging the 

 commencement and improvement of the herring and cod 

 fisheries would add great wealth to the nation, and be an 

 admirable nursery for seamen. It appears that there had 

 been no fisheries of importance in 1749 when he wrote, 

 for he says, " It is very plain that our not succeeding 

 hitherto in any degree proportionable to what might be 

 expected from the possession of such advantages, has been 

 owing either to want of care, to want of diligence, to the 

 want of due regulations, to the want of a sufficient capital, 

 or joint stock, and finally, to the want of a proper 



AUTHORITY TO GUIDE, INSTRUCT, AND INSPECT THE CONDUCT 



OF SUCH FISHERIES. Thcsc, and these alone, are, and must 

 be, the cause of former miscarriages." 



This author gives us important information as to the 

 obstacles the Dutch had to contend with, and of the 

 means they took to defend themselves, and which furnish 

 curious statistics as to the value of the herring-fishery 

 between the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the 

 seventeenth century. He says : — 



" Towards the end of the preceding and beginning of 

 the last century the Dutch herring-fishery was so dis- 

 tressed by the Dunkirkers, then subjects of the crown of 

 Spain, that a tax was imposed of a fiorin per last, in order 

 to fit out and maintain a squadron sufiicient to protect 

 the herring busses, and to block up the port of Dunkirk. 

 This tax produced annually 300,000 florins ;" and as the 

 herrings then sold from L.IO to L.20 sterling per last, but 

 generally about L.12, the amount of their herring-fishery 

 might be well computed at three millions and a half of 

 our money. It was at that time looked upon as certain 

 that the French, Emdcners, Brcmencrs, and Hamburgers, 

 took altogether about the same quantity of fish with the 



