94 CHARLES II. 
not above seeking expert advice; in October, 1662, being 
about to send some vessels to the fisheries in the North 
Isles, they wrote to the Privy Council, stating their fear 
“that the way of the Hollanders making and dressing of 
these fishes’ was not well understood by them, and asked 
that they might be allowed to include a Dutchman in their 
company who might teach them the best method of treating 
the fish. The Lords of the Council, taking a sensible view of 
the situation, considered the petition a reasonable one, and 
granted it.1 
In 1660, therefore, as in 1630, jealousy of the success 
of the Dutch sea fisheries was the moving factor in the 
attempt to develop the British fishing industry. Charles II, 
like his father, was establishing fishery companies, in the 
hope that he might thus succeed in taking away some 
considerable part of that fishing trade from which the Dutch 
still derived so great .a portion of their national wealth. 
Anxious to have as reliable information as possible concerning 
the Dutch fisheries, he had sent Dr. Benjamin Worsley, 
Secretary of State for the Department of Trade and Planta- 
tions, into Holland. On his return, he announced to the 
king that the value of the Dutch herring fishery, at the 
lowest estimation, was three million pounds sterling per 
year, a sum exceeding the produce of the manufacturers 
of England or of France ; he pointed out that this valuable 
fishery, together with her own home manufactures and her 
East Indian trade, made Holland the richest state in Europe, 
and deprecated the relinquishing of such a source of wealth 
to the Dutch, since to do so was to abandon for ever the 
supremacy of the sea. He was convinced that, owing to 
the great sums of money which had already been lost by those 
who had entered this fishing industry, it would be impossible 
to raise funds to carry on the fishery, unless it was made 
clear that it was the intention of the government to help 
1 Reg. Privy Council, Scotland, vol. i. (3rd series) p. 271. 
