KING HERRING 



721 





J* 



A STACK OF HERRING BOXES AWAITING THE FISHERY AT A NORTH SEA PORT 



tremendous foreign trade of Holland de- 

 pended largely on the herring. The old 

 saying that "the foundations of Amster- 

 dam were laid on herring bones" might 

 have been literally true of that place and 

 various other Dutch ports. In the Mid- 

 dle Ages, when all continental Europe ate 

 no animal food save fish during Lent, the 

 consumption of cured fish was enormous 

 and the demand was supplied chiefly bv 

 the Dutch. 



Only a few figures have been pre- 

 served to show how extensive the herring 

 fishery was in medieval times. It is 

 known, however, that at one period in 

 the fifteenth century there were 50,000 

 Dutch herring fishermen, and between 

 200,000 and 300,000 people engaged on 

 shore in building vessels, making nets, 

 constructing barrels, and handling the 

 catch ; there were also many thousand 

 men on the vessels that transported the 



