THE RISE OF THE HERRING FISHERIES 113 



year in time (22nd June) that the Society lost so much money, 

 and the jagers were not in time to go with the fish. At this time 

 the men on the busses were paid £3 los. a month, cutlasses and 

 muskets provided. Yoakley was told that the ransom for a buss, 

 if taken by the enemy, was not to exceed £200.1 ^yj ^hg figh yf^s to 

 go to Hamburg and Bremen in equal quantities. The agent at 

 Hamburg complains that 167 barrels of 417 brought by jager 

 were bad. 



He is thanked for not selling them, as it would " compromise 

 the reputation of the Society." The busses were laid up at Sole 

 (or Sale) for the winter, and the salt and barrels stored there. The 

 troubles of the Society accumulated ; there was great difficulty 

 in getting St. Ubes salt, but 50 tons were eventually obtained at 

 40S. per ton. At this period the French privateers swarmed off 

 Yarmouth, so that the Yarmouth fishery proved a failure. The 

 herrings were sent to Hamburg in neutral bottoms on the best terms 

 obtainable. The Society now contemplated the sale of the busses, 

 and Yoaldey was informed that the price was £400 without furniture 

 and £550 with. A jager with its cargo of herrings was captured 

 by the enemy. The Secretary of the Society, John Lockman, was 

 obviously incompetent, and the Society further declined. Finally, 

 on the 17th March, 1772, all the busses and other effects belonging 

 to the Free British Fishery were sold at the Old Swan, Southwold, 

 for £6391 I2S. 24d. " Also their extensive buildings on the common 

 for the sum of £310." 



As Anderson says, " It is, indeed, extremely difficult to beat 

 another nation out of a trade they have so long prospered in, even 

 with the above great encouragement from the public, and more 

 especially so frugal a people as the Dutch, who can content them- 

 selves with smaller gains than other nations, and carry on the 

 fishery every one on his own private bottom. "2 



Contemporary documents of the reign of George II show that, 

 in spite of the failure of such schemes under the Stuarts, " Societies " 

 for the carrying on of the herring fisheries were still in favour.* 

 It is, however, very doubtful, in spite of the ingenious arguments 

 set forth by some of these pamphleteers, whether a joint -stock 



* See evidence of Mr. Nathaniel Saunders, " Third Report on the State of British 

 Fisheries," 1785, p. 22. " In the late war, there being a number of vessels fishing 

 for cod on the Dogger Bank, a French privateer fell in with them, and captured 

 13 sail, which were ransomed, upon an average, for 150 guineas each." These 

 Harwich cod boats, of 45 to 55 tons, were smaller than the herring busses. 



2 An historical and chronological deduction of the Origin oj Commerce, Vol. Ill, 

 p. 277. 



' Considerations upon the White Herring and Cod Fisheries ; in which the 

 design of carrying on and improving them, in the manner proposed by a Society 

 trading with a Joint Stock, is fully explained, and freed from all objections. London, 

 ^749 (Admiral Edward Vernon ?). 



