70 CHARLES I. 
probably did not exaggerate in so doing, although, as herring 
prices at the time are not known, it is impossible to state 
exactly what was the annual return of the Dutch fishing 
fleet. 
Roused by such statements as these, and, at the same 
time urged to action by the members of the Association, 
who were justly incensed at the high handed conduct of 
the Dutch, Charles, in 1635, gave orders for the publication 
of Selden’s Mare Clausum, which was intended as a refuta- 
tion of the Mare Liberum of Grotius.2 The book was at once 
seized on, by English and Dutch alike, as a definite expression 
of the king’s views, which were in great measure merely 
a reiteration of those opinions concerning the rights of the 
kings of England to the hereditary sovereignty of the sea 
1The Dutch fishing fleet numbered about 2,000 busses, each buss 
bringing to shore on an average 40 last of herring per season.—Beaujon’s 
Essay, pp. 64 and 65. 
* They have 100 Dogger Boats of 150 Tuns apiece or thereabouts, 700 
Pinks and Well Boats from 60 to 100 Tuns apiece, which altogether fish upon 
the coasts of England and Scotland, for Cod and Ling only ; and each of these 
employs another Vessel for providing of Salt and transporting of their 
fish ; making in all 1,600 Ships, which maintain and imploy Persons of 
all sorts, 40,000 at least. 
‘* For the Herring Season, they have 1,600 Bushes at the least, all of them 
fishing only upon our Coasts from Boughonnes in Scotland, to the mouth 
of the Thames. And everyone of these maketh work of three other ships 
that attend her; the one to bring in salt from foreign parts; another 
to carry the said salt and cask to the busses, and the third to transport 
the said fish into Foreign Countries. So that the total number of Ships 
and Busses plying the herring fare is 6,400. Whereby every Buss 
one with another, imployeth 40 Men Mariners and Fishers, within her 
ain hold, and the rest ten men a piece which amounteth to 112,000 
Fishers and Mariners ; all which maintain double, if not treble, so many 
Tradesmen, Women, and Children at Land. 
“Moreover, they have 400 other Vessels, at least, that take Herring at 
Yarmouth, and there sell them for ready money. So that the Hollanders 
(besides 3,000 ships before mentioned Fishing upon our own Shores) 
have at least 4,800 ships, only maintained by the Seas of Great Britain.” 
—The Soveraignty of the British Seas, by Sir John Burroughs, Knight, 
written in 1633, and printed 1651. 
2 Beaujon’s Essay, p. 175. 
