96 CHARLES II.; THE NEW SOCIETIES 
of wages is interesting as showing the rate of seamen’s earn- 
ings at the time.! 
They followed this with a statement of “‘ The Incomparable 
Benefitt of the Fishery in his Maties Seas,” ? in which they 
showed how greatly the English were dependent upon their 
enemies, the Dutch, for supplies of fresh fish of all kinds 
and also for pickled herring, and how profitable an under- 
taking the fishing was to the Dutchmen concerned, whose 
own registers showed as many as 300,000 lasts of herring 
taken in a single season, and sold at from sixteen to thirty- 
six pounds the last. This state of affairs they maintained 
to be a standing reproach to the English, who, by “ sloath- 
fulness and improvidence,” allowed thousands of persons to 
be idle at home, while strangers were coming hundreds of 
leagues to their very coasts, and were there reaping this 
rich harvest ‘‘ which God and Nature sent to us.” They 
further pointed out that there was added to all this the 
constant menace of the presence of a Dutch fleet of from 
twenty to thirty warships, which were always cruising 
off the English coast “under pretence of securing their 
fishermen,”’ and urged that England could take her proper 
place among seafaring nations only by establishing her 
fisheries on a proper basis. To bear out their statements 
they then went into detail and gave “ The charges of setting 
forth a fishing fleet,” in a document which is full of inter- 
esting allusions to the fishing requisites of the time.® 
Finally, they drew up a formal proposal for the founding 
of a national fishery,* in which they embodied most of the 
stock ideas of the old pamphleteers with regard to the 
advantages to be derived from making this a national 
industry. Their object was attained, however; public 
opinion was now on their side, and the king determined, 
in some measure at least, to meet the desire of his subjects 
on the matter. 
1 Detailed in Appendix. 2 Appendix. 3 Ibid. 4 bid. 
