io8 THE SEA FISHERIES 



canvas for sayles, and Ipswich canvas. Pease and oatmeale. 

 Butter and cheese. Bacon in gammons. Aqua vitae and vinegar. 

 Gipping-knives and chopsticks, adzes and other tooles. Leather 

 for the gippers. Barke of ashen trees for tanning the nets. Sea- 

 coales for heating the copper for tanning. Corke and rosen from 

 Burdeaux. Candles and other chandlery wares. A good quantity 

 of deepings or quarter nets always in readinesse, for to new the nets 

 at the return of the busses. And all the twine that can be gotten 

 of the summer spinning, which is then best made both for spinning 

 and drying." 



The Royal Fishing Companies referred to received both financial 

 support and certain other privileges from the Government. In 

 addition to the contributions of the Companies various devices were 

 employed to raise money. The right to hold lotteries was granted 

 to the Council for the fishery, and the King (Charles II) made an 

 appeal for collection in the churches. 



The first of these Companies was the "Association for the Fishing," 

 established by Charles I in 1632. This Association under the active 

 personal interest of the King (Charles I) made several attempts to 

 embark in the herring-buss fishery. A great drawback to their 

 success was the activity of the Dutch and Dunkirk privateers. 

 Even when herrings were caught and cured they were rejected in the 

 foreign markets, e.g. at Dantaic in 1637 and 1638. The outbreak 

 of the Civil War deprived the Association of the King's interest 

 and support, and it soon died a natural death. 



Other societies were established by Charles II. 



For various reasons none of these companies was successful. 

 Jealousy between the English and Scotch was one reason. Mis- 

 management on shore, the difficulty of obtaining the services of 

 qualified fishermen and fishcurers ; the depredations of the priva- 

 teers of Dunkirk and Ostend, and finally the competition, both 

 legitimate and illegitimate, of the Dutch, proved too much for all 

 the fishery companies. ^ Moreover, the generally unsettled state of 

 the kingdom rendered the active support of the monarch an 

 uncertain quantity, so that the reigns of the Stuarts witnessed a 

 series of unsuccessful attempts on the part of Great Britam to 

 compete with her Dutch rivals in the fishing trade, it was reserved 

 to the eighteenth century to see the British supreme m the North 

 Sea The chief cause of the decline of the Dutch sea fisheries in 

 this century was the frequent maritime wars in which the United 

 Provinces were engaged. The withdrawal of the Dutch competi- 



1 There are references to the Company o^ t^!, ^^t'trH Ln/^^th'seSber! 



