UNDER THE STUARTS. JAMES I. A NEW POLICY.
Shortly after the accession of James to the throne of England, the
liberal policy of his predecessors as to the freedom of the sea
suffered a marked change. In the previous century, under the Tudors,
little was heard of the pretension to the sovereignty of the sea,
with the exception of the striking of the flag to the royal ships
in the narrow seas--a ceremony that was not peculiar to England.
Foreigners then, as always before, enjoyed complete liberty of fishing
on the coasts of England and Ireland, and no attempts had been made
to exact tribute from them on the Scottish coasts. Queen Elizabeth,
as has been shown, not only refrained from putting forward claims to
the sovereignty of the sea, but on several occasions and in the most
positive manner asserted the freedom of the seas for both navigation
and fishing against the exclusive policy of Denmark and Spain. At
the end of the Tudor period England was the great champion of _mare
liberum_--long before the Dutch Republic had challenged the monopolies
of the Portuguese either by the pen of Grotius or the guns of Jakob van
Heemskerk.
But under James the old doctrine was revived, and something new was
added in a claim to the fisheries along the British coasts. Before
he had been a year in England he took measures, with the laudable
object of defining the bays, or “King’s Chambers,” within which the
hostile actions of belligerents were prohibited. In its essence this
act was opposed to extensive claims to maritime sovereignty, because
it restricted a most important attribute of such sovereignty to
comparatively a narrow space in the adjacent sea, though a space much
greater than that now comprised in the so-called territorial waters.
In point of fact, throughout his reign no assertion was made to such
a maritime sovereignty as was claimed by Charles I.[228] The measures
referred to were in relation to neutrality in the war which continued
between the United Provinces and Spain, James having promptly concluded
peace with the latter Power. He issued a number of proclamations
referring to privateering and depredations at sea, most of them being
conceived in the interests of Spain; and in one of these, for the
recall of British mariners in foreign service, dated 1st March 1604,
the king forbad hostilities within his ports, havens, roads, creeks, or
other places of his dominions, or so near to any of his ports or havens
as might be reasonably construed to be within that title, limit, or
precinct, as well as the hovering of men-of-war in the neighbourhood
of such places; and he caused “plats” of the limits of his ports
and jurisdiction to be prepared for the instruction of his officers
concerned.[229]
Long before the time of James the harbours, roadsteads, and at all
events some of the bays of a country were recognised as belonging to
it, in the sense at least that hostilities of belligerent men-of-war
or the capture of prizes were forbidden within them; they were
“sanctuaries” under the jurisdiction and protection of the adjoining
territory. With regard to the English Chambers, we find that in the
treaty which Cardinal Wolsey drew up in 1521, when acting as mediator
between the Emperor Charles V. and King Francis I. of France, it was
stipulated that during the war between these two sovereigns, the
ships, whether armed or unarmed, as well as the mariners, of either
side should be secure from attack by the other Power in the harbours,
bays, rivers, mouths of rivers, roads or stations for shipping, and
especially in the Downs or other maritime place under the jurisdiction
of the King of England.[230] There is little doubt that this article
only embodied in a formal manner what had long been the practice of
nations, the Downs being specially mentioned as the most important
anchorage in the kingdom.
When James decided to mark out distinctly on a chart the boundaries of
his neutral waters on the coast of England, the matter was submitted
to the Trinity House, and a jury of thirteen men, specially skilled
in maritime affairs, was appointed to prepare tables and charts
showing the position and limits of the King’s Chambers and ports and
the sailing directions for the same, according to their knowledge
of what had been the custom in the past. The charts and schedules
were presented to Sir Julius Cæsar, the Judge of the High Court of
Admiralty, on 4th March 1604, together with a sworn declaration that
they represented the true boundaries.[231] The chambers formed were
nominally twenty-six in number, the points or headlands selected by the
surveyors being as follows, beginning at the northern extremity of the
east coast and ending at the Isle of Man--Holy Island, Souter Point,
Whitby, Flamborough Head, Spurn Point, Cromer, Winterton Ness, Caster
Ness, Lowestoft, East Ness, Orfordness, the North Foreland, the South
Foreland, Dungeness, Beachy Head, “Dunenoze” (Isle of Wight), Portland
Bill, Start Point, Rame Head, Dodman Point, the Lizard, the Land’s End,
Milford, St David’s Head, Bardsey Island, Holyhead, the Isle of Man.
The extent of the “chambers” varies in different places; and while this
is obviously due on some parts of the coast to the contour, it is due
on other parts to a selection of headlands, no doubt according to the
custom which had grown up and was recognised among the officers and
others concerned. Thus the great bay between Cornwall and Devon would
have formed a natural “chamber” by a line, not so long as some of the
others, between Start Point, or Prawl Point, and the Lizard, and which
would have formed part of the girdle around the coast; whereas three
chambers are formed along its shores. On the east coast the “chambers”
are as a rule small,[232] the largest embracing the mouths of the
Humber and the Thames; they are generally large on the south coast,
and largest of all on the west coast, where the whole of the Bristol
Channel was enclosed by the line from Land’s End to Milford, a distance
of nearly 100 nautical miles, the whole area containing about 3400
square nautical miles. This chamber, as well as those to the north of
it, must have been of importance on account of the volume of shipping
which passed through it.[233]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--_Chart prepared by the Trinity House showing
the bearings of the King’s Chambers._ From Selden.]
It is to be noted that the King’s Chambers were confined to the coast
of England, and, further, that they had no reference to the claim
of James to property in his seas, so far at least as fisheries were
concerned. They were strictly limited to questions of neutrality and
jurisdiction, in view of the war then existing between Spain and the
United Provinces and the frequent depredations of privateers. The
chambers on the east coast, where the Dutch carried on their great
herring fishery, were much too small to have any relation to the
subject of unlicensed fishing; and at no time during the prolonged
discussions on the fishery were the limits of the King’s Chambers made
use of in argument. Neutral protection, moreover, was strictly limited
to the waters defined. It was in vain that Gentilis, the Spanish
advocate in the Admiralty Prize Court, argued that the jurisdiction of
England extended far beyond the limits of the “chambers,” and ought
therefore to be lawfully and justly applied in protecting Spanish
vessels from the talons of the Dutch on the high seas. The judgment
of the Court of Admiralty, so far as concerned the place of capture,
was always based upon the consideration whether that place lay within
or without the limits of a “chamber.”
[Illustration: Fig. 4.--_Showing the King’s Chambers on the Coast of
England._]
The campaign against foreigners fishing on the British coast, which
opened up the claims of England in the seventeenth century to the
sovereignty of the sea and introduced a new principle into English
international policy, originated in another set of ideas, which
James brought with him from Scotland. The Scottish people had been
always very jealous of foreigners sharing in their fisheries, and, as
we have seen, never consented to give them the liberty to fish, so
freely accorded by England. Moreover, a tax or tribute, called the
“assize-herring,” was imposed upon the native fishermen in Scotland,
and formed a part of the revenues of the crown. Although its value
was not great, James conceived the idea of levying it also from the
foreign fishermen, who frequented the British seas in large numbers,
and before he formally demanded it in 1609, some curious negotiations
took place with a syndicate of London merchants who proposed to form
a fishery association based on the taxation of foreign fishermen, and
in return they promised a handsome revenue to the king. The desire
for an increased revenue may therefore have had something to do with
the proposal to restrain unlicensed fishing on the British coasts.
But neither this consideration, the practice in Scotland, nor the
king’s passion for his prerogative, fully accounts for the reversal of
the long-settled policy of England, which was accomplished with the
concurrence of the Privy Council, and, so far as may be judged, with
the full approval of the people.
In truth, a great change had taken place in the national sentiment.
England had now entered upon the long struggle for commercial and
maritime supremacy, with the aim of increasing the power of the nation
against all rivals.[234] It was obvious to every one that the great
rival and competitor was the Dutch Republic, whose rapid rise to the
first commercial state in Europe deeply impressed the minds of English
statesmen and writers. In the reign of Elizabeth, the common interest
of the two countries in opposing Spain prevented measures being taken
to curb the growing power of the Dutch. But early in the seventeenth
century this motive had lost its force. James had promptly concluded
peace with Spain, and even spoke of the Dutch as rebels.[235] Thus,
during his reign arose that bitter rivalry and keen emulation of the
Dutch which continued throughout nearly the whole century, and of which
the English claim to the sovereignty of the sea may be looked upon as
an important phase. It was against the United Provinces that the claim
was directed, and as the Dutch themselves openly boasted that the sea
fisheries were the foundation of their shipping, wealth, and power, it
was to the sea fisheries that England first turned in her efforts to
cripple them.
Those fisheries had greatly increased towards the end of the sixteenth
and in the early part of the seventeenth century. An official account
of the fisheries of Holland, Zealand, and Flanders in 1562 estimated
the number of busses and fishing-boats at 700, of which Holland had
400, most of them being “great” busses of about 46 lasts burden.[236]
Guiccardini, who visited the Low Countries about the same time, placed
the fleet of busses at 700, each of which made three voyages, bringing
back on an average 70 lasts of herrings, or a total of 588,000 barrels,
valued at £441,000 sterling.[237] Another author of the period gave a
list of towns whose prosperity and even existence depended upon the
fishery;[238] and a little later Hitchcock, and, following him, Dee,
stated that 400 or 500 busses came every year from the Low Countries
to fish for herrings on the east coast of this country.[239] Those
figures referred to the fisheries of the Netherlands as a whole,
including Flanders, but during the war of independence, after the
United Provinces threw off the yoke of Spain and secured command of the
sea, the Flemish fisheries withered away. At Dunkirk, for example,
which sent 500 busses to the herring-fishing in 1532 and 400 in 1550,
the fishermen at the beginning of the next century were scarcely able
to supply the town with herrings.[240] The industry passed into the
hands of the Dutch. At the end of Elizabeth’s reign, so greatly had it
prospered that 1500 busses went to the herring-fishing in 1601 from
Holland and Zealand alone.[241]
From this time much attention was given by English writers to the
Dutch fisheries, and on the whole they exaggerated their extent and
the number of boats and vessels engaged in them. One of them, John
Keymer, who was afterwards much quoted, professedly based his account
upon his personal observations in the Netherlands about the year 1601.
His statement appears to have been submitted to King James in 1605 or
1606, but it was not published until 1664. He said that the fishing
fleet of the Hollanders numbered more than 4100 vessels, of which 100
were dogger-boats, 700 pinks and well-boats, 700 “strand-boats,” 400
“euers,” and 400 “galliotts, drivers, and tod-boats,” and 1200 busses,
afterwards increased to 2000. The pinks and well-boats, each from 60 to
100 tons burden, fished on the coasts of England and Scotland for cod
and ling, while the busses, ranging from 60 to 200 tons burden, pursued
the herring fishery along our east coast. There were also, according
to this author, 400 Dutch vessels, called “Gaynes” and “Euers,” which
fished for herrings off Yarmouth; 1000 vessels, of from 50 to 100 tons,
that caught cod and ling in his Majesty’s seas; as well as 600 ships
engaged in carrying cod and ling to London. Keymer also says that
he had seen near 3000 sail of English, Scotch, French, Hollanders,
Embdeners, Breemeners, and Hamburgers fishing _at one time_ upon the
coast of Scotland, Shetland, Orkney, Gattney (Caithness?), North
Farrel, and Fowl (Fair) Isle, and divers other places.[242] In a later
treatise which Keymer wrote in 1620 and submitted to King James, it
is also said that the Hollanders employed about 3000 ships and 50,000
people in fishing on the coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
This tract has usually been attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh and is
published among his works, and it obtained celebrity in consequence,
both in this country and on the Continent, but it was without doubt
written by Keymer.[243] A more moderate statement was made by another
writer, Tobias Gentleman, who published the best work on the subject,
in 1614, and was evidently well versed in the fisheries both of Holland
and England. He states that 1000 sail of Hollanders came every year
to fish for herrings in “his Majesty’s streams”; that more than 600 of
them were “great busses,” some of 120 tons, most of about 100 tons;
that the crews numbered from 16 to 24 men, so that there could not be
less than 20,000 mariners altogether. In addition to the great fleet
of busses, the Hollanders had “a huge number” of smaller vessels of
from 20 to 50 tons burden, with crews of from 8 to 12 men, which were
called “sword-pinks,” “flat-bottoms,” “Holland-toads,” “Crabskuits,”
and “Yeuars,” and fished for herrings along with the busses on the
east coast from Shetland southwards, carrying home their catches or
selling them at Yarmouth. Gentleman says there had been seen at one
time, “and numbered,” at Brassey Sound, in Shetland, where the busses
rendezvoused, either going to sea or at sea within view, 2000 sail of
busses and schuits, besides those that were out of sight. All these
fished for herrings during the season “in his Majesty’s seas.” Then the
pinks and well-boats, which caught cod and ling all the year round,
numbered between 500 and 600; they were from 30 to 40 tons burden,
and had crews of about 12 men each. There were also more than 200
“fly-boats” which fished with lines to the north-east of Shetland all
the year round for ling, which were split and salted in bulk and were
known as “Holland-lings,” although, says Gentleman, they were really
Shetland lings before they took them from his Majesty’s seas. This
author placed the total number of Dutch fishermen who fished off the
British coasts at not less than 37,000, of whom 32,000 were engaged in
the herring fishery, and 5000 in fishing for cod and ling.[244]
It would thus appear from the evidently honest account of Gentleman,
that early in the reign of James fully 2000 Hollander busses and
fishing vessels frequented the British seas. But the Dutch were not
the only foreigners who reaped the harvest of fishes along our coasts.
Fishermen likewise came from France, Spain, and Portugal, from Hamburg,
Emden, and Bremen. The French herring-boats, from Normandy and Picardy,
generally numbered about 100; sometimes there were only 40, and they
did not go so far north as the Hollanders.[245] Spanish, Portuguese,
and French vessels fished for mackerel on the Irish coast and to the
south-west of England, as well as for cod in the North Sea. Those from
Hamburg, Bremen, and Emden took part in the herring fishery on the east
coast, but they appear to have mostly confined their operations to the
northern parts of Scotland. French and Flemish vessels also visited
the western lochs of Scotland, both for fishing and for the purchase
of fish.[246] The total number of foreign vessels thus fishing in the
British seas at the time in question must have been large. In both of
Keymer’s treatises it is stated that there were 20,000, with 400,000
people. This estimate is obviously greatly exaggerated; but making
all due allowances, it is certain that the fleets of foreign fishing
vessels frequenting our coasts in the reign of James were of formidable
extent. The great herring-busses, while fishing along the east coast
of Scotland, were described in 1608 as occupying an area of the sea of
at least 45 miles in length by 22 miles in breadth, within which space
they allowed no others to shoot a net.[247]
The herring fishery of the Dutch along the British coast was known as
the “great fishery” (_Groote Visscherye_), to distinguish it from the
“small” or fresh-herring fishery which was pursued locally, and it
was subjected to minute regulations. The busses collected at Bressay
Sound in Shetland in the early part of June, but the fishing was not
allowed to begin until St John’s Day, on the 24th of the month, when
the vessels departed in fleets for the fishing-grounds under the charge
of “commodores” and guarded by men-of-war. As the season advanced
the fishing was carried on farther and farther to the south. Until
St James’ Day (25th July) it was prosecuted in the neighbourhood of
Shetland, Fair Isle, and as far south as Buchan Ness; from then until
Elevation Day (14th September) it was from Buchan Ness to the coast of
Northumberland; then southwards to the deep water off Yarmouth till St
Catherine’s Day (25th September); and so to the mouth of the Thames,
the fishing usually coming to an end at the beginning of December.
The “fleet” or train of nets was more than a mile in length, which
necessitated the busses keeping some distance apart to prevent fouling;
they were shot in the evening and hauled in the morning, when the crew
began to salt and pack the herrings into barrels, which were then taken
to Holland in “yagers,” or carriers, repacked, branded, and exported to
various countries. The smaller vessels which took part in the “fresh”
herring fishery were employed especially off Yarmouth in the autumn,
and they sold their herrings for ready money to the fish-curers with
whom they were “hosted.” On some occasions as many as 200 of those
smaller Dutch vessels lay in Yarmouth harbour at a time. The boats that
went for cod, ling, and haddock fished throughout the North Sea,--the
smaller ones at the Dogger Bank as a rule, the larger on the Scottish
coast and at Shetland. Hand-lines, baited with herring or lamprey, were
used, the cod being either pickled, dried, or brought to land alive in
wells, and these vessels furnished the larger part of the supply to
London.
The quantity and value of the fish caught by the Dutch off the British
coasts were variously stated. Keymer, in his first tract, estimated
the quantity of herrings taken by the 2000 busses in the twenty-six
weeks of their fishing at about 300,000 lasts (or 3,600,000 barrels)
annually, and the value, at first hand, at £3,600,000 sterling.
But the merchants who exported the pickled herrings--and by far the
greater quantity were exported[248]--are said to have charged from
£16 to £36 a last, the eventual value as merchandise being estimated
at not less than £5,000,000 sterling. In his later treatise the
value of the herrings exported by the Dutch is placed lower, at
about £1,768,000, the quantity being stated at from about 89,500 to
100,500 lasts, or from 1,074,000 to 1,206,000 barrels. Gentleman,
whose work seems to have been the most trustworthy, estimated the
quantity of herrings taken by the Dutch in the British seas at over
100,000 lasts or 1,200,000 barrels, the original value at £1,000,000
sterling and the gross value at twice that amount; “while we,” he
says, “take no more than to bait our hooks.” Gentleman’s estimate
of the quantity may be taken as approximately correct, because in
the present day the least effective of the vessels taking part in
the Dutch herring fishery--namely, the old-fashioned flat-bottomed
boats (_bommen_)--catch and cure on an average in a season about 660
barrels each, so that the quantity taken by a fleet of 2000 of such
vessels would be about 1,320,000 barrels. But the old busses were
of a superior type, keeled vessels (_hoekers, sloepen_), and the
average catch of their modern representatives in a season is about
1060 barrels, which for a fleet of the same number would give a total
yield of about 2,120,000 barrels, or over 176,000 lasts. Monson placed
the value of the herrings exported from Holland to the Baltic at
£800,000, and of those sent to other countries at £1,000,000,[249]
while Sir Nicholas Hales in 1609 estimated the value of the exported
herrings at £4,000,000, but raised it later, in 1634, to £6,000,000,
owing to information received from Amsterdam.[250] Sir John Borough’s
estimate was still higher. He said that if account was taken of all
the herrings, cod, ling, and other fish caught in the British seas by
foreigners, the gross value would exceed £10,000,000 a year.
The larger figures above cited are unquestionably exaggerated, but
even the lowest shows how very valuable the sea fisheries were to the
Dutch at the beginning of the seventeenth century, for the total value
of all the commodities exported from England in 1613 was placed at
£2,487,435, and the value of the imports at £2,141,151.[251]
The English fisheries, which Cecil had laboured to revive, presented
a striking contrast to the prosperous fishery of the foreigners. As
in the days of Hitchcock, our fishermen shot their nets for herrings
from small vessels near the shore, and on the east coast, at least,
only in the period from September to November, with the exception of
an occasional “summer” fishing.[252] They had very “sorry” nets and
poor frail boats, and most of those going to the Yarmouth fishing
from Yorkshire and Durham were only “five-men” cobles.[253] “The
Hollander busses,” it was said, “are greate and strong and able to
brooke foul weather, whereas our cobles, crayers, and boats, being
small and thin-sided, are easily swallowed by rough seas, not daringe
to adventure far in fair weather by reason of their weaknesse for
feare of stormes.” The largest of the crayers were of 20 tons burden,
their catch of herrings for a night being generally from one to three,
and rarely as much as seven, lasts.[254] One can only guess at the
number of fishing boats and vessels belonging to east coast ports
at this time. Gentleman stated that the number of “North Sea boats”
which fished for cod, and probably also for herrings, in autumn, was
from 224 to 237 along the stretch of coast between the Thames and the
Humber, the crews employed in them being between 1500 and 1600. The
Iceland barks numbered about 125 in 1614; 20 of them, as well as 150
of the North Sea boats, belonged to Yarmouth. The town-clerk of that
port, writing about the same time, said that they sent annually to
Iceland and the north seas for cod and ling about 120 sail, while all
the “ships, crayers, and fisher-boats” belonging to Yarmouth numbered
220; the able-bodied mariners and fishermen amounted to 1000.[255] The
only other fisheries on the east coast were a small one for mackerel,
which employed 40 boats at Yarmouth in the spring; a sprat fishery with
bag-nets; while some small trawlers worked in the bays and estuaries.
On the east coast of Scotland there was no native herring fishery
except in the firths.
Compared with the great trade of the Dutch, the exports of fish from
this country were insignificant and trifling in view of the quantity
imported: in London alone no less than £12,000 was paid to the
Hollanders for barrelled fish and Holland lings between the Christmas
of 1613 and 18th February 1614. Scotland still sent tolerably large
quantities of salmon, herrings, and salt fish to France, Spain, and
elsewhere; but the exports from England were almost quite confined to
red-herrings from Yarmouth and pilchards from Cornwall,--both sent to
the Mediterranean, and very commonly in Dutch bottoms.[256] The English
had no share whatever in the trade in pickled herrings or in pickled
cod; they were indeed ignorant of the method of curing the latter.
From the foregoing it is not difficult to realise the feeling of
irritation against the Dutch which began to gather in the breasts of
the English people. They witnessed with envy the great fleets of alien
fishing vessels which darkened their coasts every season and reaped a
rich harvest in waters which they regarded as their own. “No king upon
the earth,” said Gentleman, “did yet ever see such a Fleet of his own
subjects at any time, and yet this Fleet is there and then yearly to
be seen. A most worthy sight it were, if they were my own countrymen!”
Statesmen and economists saw in the extension of the Dutch fisheries a
menace to the power and wealth of the nation. The fisheries formed a
valuable nursery of seamen to man the mercantile marine and the royal
navy; it was chiefly from this point of view that the political lent
and the fishery Acts of the previous reign were designed. Another
consideration began to excite even more attention. The trade in fish
was looked upon as forming the basis of commerce and national wealth.
The Dutch boasted that the herring fishery was their “gold-mine”; that
“the herring keeps Dutch trade going, and Dutch trade sets the world’s
afloat”;[257] and the argument that national power and wealth depended
on the sea fisheries became a commonplace in the seventeenth century,
and was urged as a reason why the English people should secure for
themselves the fisheries in their own seas. This, it was said, would
do more good to the kingdom than all the mines and the whole trade in
cloth and wool; the fisheries would be more valuable to us than the
Indies were to Spain, or than was the commerce with the West Indies;
they were the “very goal and prize of trade and of the dominion of
the sea.”[258] Had not Holland, which was “not so big as one of his
Majesty’s shires,” and where nothing “grew” save “a few hops, madder,
and cheese,” become a rich and powerful state, full of goodly towns,
and the great mart of Europe, owing to the fish drawn from the British
seas? Did not Dutch ships, in return for the fish they exported, come
back laden with the riches of other lands,--with oil and wine, honey
and wool, from France and Spain; with velvets, silks, and spices from
the Mediterranean; with corn and wax, hemp, iron, and timber, from the
Baltic? And all this great commerce was founded on their fisheries in
his Majesty’s seas.
Two other arguments were very commonly put forward,--that the
development of the fisheries would directly increase shipping, and
also give birth to many other industries. Ingenious and detailed
calculations were made to show that if 20 busses were built at a
seaport they would cause other 80 ships to be constructed, increase the
number of mariners by 1000, and give employment to nearly 8000 people
by sea and land. “It is the fish taken upon his Majesty’s coasts,” said
Sir William Monson, the Admiral of the Narrow Sea, “that is the only
cause of the increase of shipping in Europe; and he that hath the trade
of fishing becomes mightier than all the world besides in number of
ships.”[259] Dutch ships crowded our ports; they carried away English
commodities at lower freights than English vessels could afford to
do, and thus we were “eaten out of all trade and the bread taken out
of our mouths in our own seas, and the great customs carried from his
Majesty’s coffers to foreign princes and states.” The Hollanders were
accused of trying “to get the whole trade of Christendom into their
own hands, as well for transportation as otherwise for the command and
mastery of the seas.” Yet the king was “Lord Paramount of those seas”
in which the foreigners caught the fish that made them so rich and
powerful: surely “he would not, without question, allow strangers to
eat up the food that was provided for his children!”[260]
Such was the national spirit and sentiment that had been developing
during the closing years of Elizabeth’s reign and the early part of
the reign of James, and was well expressed by Sir Walter Raleigh when
he said that “whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever
commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and
consequently the world itself.”[261] England was to become powerful
and rich by shipping and maritime commerce, and the first step in the
struggle was to secure the fisheries for herself. Opinions varied as to
how this was to be accomplished. Some recommended the establishing of a
national fishery on the plan recommended by Hitchcock in the preceding
generation and tried by Charles I. in the next. Others suggested the
institution of a commission of “State Merchant,” which would have trade
and commerce as well as fisheries under its charge. A few spoke, more
faintly, of the potency of fish-days and the strict observance of Lent.
But all or almost all agreed that foreigners, and in particular the
Hollanders, should be either prohibited from fishing in the British
seas or allowed to do so only under license and regulations and the
payment of a tribute to the crown.
The proposal most commonly mooted was to build a fleet of
herring-busses for ourselves, and, in short, to imitate the Dutch
system in all particulars. The natural advantages we possessed
were made the most of. The fishing-grounds were at our doors, while
the Dutch had to sail long distances. We had numerous harbours and
sheltered beaches for the wintering of the busses. We had all the
materials for building and equipping the busses except pitch and tar,
whereas the Dutch had to import everything save hemp; and abundance of
men to man the vessels could be got from the “decayed towns.” It was on
the other hand admitted that we laboured under one disadvantage. The
Dutch fishermen were more frugal, more industrious and painstaking,
than the English. They were content with plain fare--with bread and
butter, cheese, a little pork, and fish,--while the English required
beef and beer, and much of both.[262] And while the Dutch worked hard,
“labouring merrily together,” the English fishermen “sat day and night
drinking in the ale-houses.”[263]
But any scheme for establishing a great national fishery had little
chance of financial support from the public unless it could be shown to
be profitable, and there was no lack of calculations and computations
to prove the great profits that might be made. Gentleman estimated that
the clear gain from one buss, allowing for wear and tear, would amount
to £565 in four months, and from a pink for cod-fishing to £158 in
two months. The author of _Britaines Buss_ calculated that the yearly
profit from one herring-fishing and one cod-fishing of a single buss
would amount to £897, after all expenses had been paid. This writer
proposed that a corporation should be formed, consisting of noblemen,
gentry, and citizens “of ability,” each of whom should provide one
buss; that the corporation should receive from the king certain
powers, privileges, and immunities; and that a joint-stock should be
raised like that of the East India Company, the annual profit on which
was estimated at 75 per cent.
Those schemes resembled the one put forward by Hitchcock in the
previous reign and frequently advocated since. Sir Walter Cope
indeed told King James, in 1612, that “this royal work,” within his
own knowledge, had been in project for thirty years, but that in
Queen Elizabeth’s time it had been “ever silenced” in favour of the
Netherlands, who then maintained war against a common enemy.[264]
Within two or three years of the accession of James, the project took
more definite form, and was brought before the Privy Council, and it
was carefully considered in 1607. An integral part of the proposal was
that strangers fishing in the British seas should pay tribute to the
king, while the native fishery remained untaxed, and that the tribute
should be farmed out to patentees, as was done with the assize-herrings
in Scotland, who would then establish a national buss fishery and pay
a rent to the crown.[265] There were several schemes of the kind,
but the one which received most attention was put forward by a Mr
Richard Rainsford, acting on behalf of a number of London merchants,
who aimed at forming an association to be called the Society of
Fishing Merchants. In 1608 the proposals were referred to the Earl of
Northampton, Lord Privy Seal, and the Earl of Devonshire, who commended
them as being for the public good, and early next year a formal and
detailed scheme was prepared.[266] In the preamble stress was laid on
the fact that the Hollanders and other nations had their principal
fishing on his Majesty’s coasts and seas, “whose soveraignty ought
therein to be acknowledged, not only to procure thereby payment of
his Majesty’s duties of fishing, but also to have his kingdom provided
with fish at such reasonable rates and prices as other nations have
maintained thereby navigation and mariners; and setting of an infinite
number of subjects on work within the realm of England and Scotland
to strengthen his Majesty’s dominion by sea and land, as the chief
point of a most commendable Union,” that is to say, a union of England
and Scotland, the idea of which was still in the mind of James. The
justification for imposing a tribute on foreign fishermen, which was
to be in kind, was the king’s right to the tithe, “grounded by ancient
customs and records of his Majesty’s predecessors demanding the tenth
fish; whereunto three things were required: (1) how his Majesty’s tithe
and right can be evidently proved; (2) precedents, that other kings
and princes have and do the like in their seas; (3) that it shall
give no cause of offence to other princes or states to move war.” The
second part of the project was to build a “competent number” of ships
or busses yearly, and so to re-establish the fishing trade which,
it was said, one Violet Stephens and other discontented fishmongers
from England had transferred to Enkhuisen and other places in Holland
some ninety years earlier, teaching the Dutch to come and fish in the
British seas--a false tale current in England in the reign of James.
As an alternative plan, to be put into immediate execution in
connection with the truce just concluded between Spain and the United
Provinces,[267] it was proposed that, his Majesty’s right and tithe
having been made plain as above described, the Hollanders themselves
should be invited to join on reasonable terms with the English
projectors in the fishing trade for one-third part, or even a half, of
the fishery. This course, it was believed, would prevent any cause of
offence, being, it was said, in agreement with “the known precedents of
other princes.” It was also thought that it would be agreeable to the
Hollanders, since they would see that the Society of Fishing Merchants,
being free from license or tribute, could afford to have busses built
in Denmark for themselves should that be necessary. If the Hollanders
could be induced to associate themselves with the Society, then,
it was argued, when the time came to interfere with their “general
fishery,” the risk of war would be removed, and the king’s tithe
and right might be acknowledged and established by proclamation or
otherwise.[268]
The acknowledgment of the king’s “sovereignty or title annexed to the
dignity of the Crown” required the contribution of the tenth or the
twentieth fish, more or less, to be delivered at sea for the general
good of the Society, so that they might be able to tide over bad
years and maintain the fishermen. In this way, by heavily taxing the
Hollanders, it was believed that “no man should be discouraged by bad
successe, but might depend upon God’s blessing with a quiete minde
to follow his vocacion avoydinge Idlenes by ye survey of others.” On
the other hand, the Society would undertake to pay the king so much
upon every last of fish as might be thought convenient, provided that
letters patent were granted under which the Hollanders and other
strangers would be “limited and ruled.”
In this scheme of the London merchants it was proposed to acquire in
the first year fifty fishing vessels, partly by buying them beyond the
seas, and partly by building them in Denmark, Scotland, and the north
of England. The busses were not to exceed fifty, or the dogger-boats
thirty tons, since the Dutch in recent years had found the smaller
vessels more profitable than the larger ones. It was stated that some
families in Holland, the “east countries,” and Hamburg, with vessels
of their own, were desirous of joining the London Society,--several
of them had indeed arrived in England,--and it was proposed to admit
them for a few years only, in order to lay the foundations of the
business, and to educate English lads in the curing of herrings, and,
what was “not the least point,” to make the English as industrious
as themselves. When the fishery was thoroughly established, it would
be easy to erect “staple towns and magazines” for the commodities of
other countries; the ships of the Society would bring back merchandise
for the fish exported, and a great commerce would be created. In all
this prosperity “the King’s Majesty might be made a partaker, as a
Royal Merchant,” while the stock required would easily be found among
the merchants. On the other hand, if the king confined his action
to the issuing of licenses to foreigners, without giving means for
establishing a society of merchants for the fishing, then his subjects
would be entirely dependent for their fish on these foreign fishermen,
who would charge higher prices to recoup themselves for the cost of
the licenses. The country, moreover, would suffer from the loss of the
commerce that sprung from the trade in fish; the transportation of
money and bullion for fish and other commodities brought into the realm
would continue unchecked; and the king would lose the great strength of
shipping and mariners that otherwise would be available for the defence
of the kingdom.
Objections were raised to the project on the ground that it was
unlikely that the Society, even with the advantages which they desired,
would be able to compete with the Hollanders. The Hamburgers and other
peoples who had previously made the attempt had failed, for the Dutch
were very industrious and frugal, their fish always brought the highest
price, often 25 per cent above that of other nations, because they were
thoroughly skilled and experienced in the industry. The freights of the
Hollanders were, moreover, far lower than in English ships, as they
took barrelled herrings for ballast, or even for “drink money.”
A more serious difficulty was the principle that lay at the root of
the scheme--the taxation of the Dutch fishermen for the benefit of
the Society. It was evidently admitted that the project would fail,
even if the busses were manned by Dutchmen and the herrings cured and
exported by them, unless some form of subsidy was provided. But on the
threshold lay the question of the king’s right to impose a tribute
on foreign fishermen. Rainsford endeavoured to help the solution by
submitting a memorandum, “Touching his Majesty’s Tythe.”[269] It has
some interest from the circumstance that it was the first attempt made
in the reign of James to furnish historical and legal precedents for
interfering with the liberty of fishing. In substance it is little more
than a collection of the stories current at the time concerning the
sovereignty of the sea, such as those about King Edgar, Queen Mary and
Philip, and Camden’s statement about Scarborough.[270] It was also
said that fishermen were compelled to pay taxes for liberty to fish
in Russia, at the “Shoffland” islands and other islands belonging to
the King of Sweden, in Denmark, and in Spain, where the Duke of Medina
Sidonia derived a large revenue from the taxes on the tunny fishery.
Rainsford reiterated the advantages of the scheme to the nation and
the navy, and promised an annual revenue of £20,000 to the king, after
the lapse of seven years, so long as he granted to the patentees the
tribute on foreign fishermen.
About this time, whether by arrangement with the London merchants
or independently, some influential persons addressed the king in
denunciation of the Dutch. Sir Nicholas Hales in 1608, and again in
1609, strongly advised the king to take action against them. Their
fisheries in his Majesty’s seas, he said, were worth more than the
mines of gold and silver in the Indies; in one year they had sold
fish in England alone to the value of £1,200,000; by their means they
maintained 100,000 men with their wives and families. Then their
immense shipping was a menace to the security of the realm. They
came into our roads and harbours with their guns and ordnance on
board: sometimes three or four hundred sail of Hollanders sheltered
in St George’s Channel, where our fleet, if need were, could always
strike them. The whole trade of Christendom appeared to be going
into their hands. Sir Nicholas was afraid they might join with the
“Turks” against us; there was even risk of invasion unless measures
were taken to curb their growing power. The measures he proposed
were the delivery of Flushing and Brill as pledges of security, and
the payment of £4,000,000 for the king’s license to carry on their
fishery for twenty-one years on the British coasts. Otherwise they
should be compelled to pay a tithe of the twentieth herring or be
forbidden altogether.[271] Sir William Monson--who was a Roman
Catholic, had been Admiral of the Narrow Sea, and was accused by the
Dutch of antipathy to them--wrote several papers in the same strain.
He dwelt upon the danger to England of their increase in shipping
commerce and power, all derived from the fisheries in the British
seas. They had already got the Irish and Russian trade, as well as
that to the Mediterranean, so that while twelve years before there
were twelve English ships to one Hollander in that sea, there were now
ten Hollanders to one English; they even transported the red-herrings
from Yarmouth and the pilchards from Cornwall and Ireland, which was
previously done by English vessels. Monson’s remedy was to obtain
possession of the fisheries and build a fleet of English busses.[272]
There is no doubt James was inclined to listen with a favourable ear to
the proposals to establish a native herring fishery at the expense of
the Dutch. A year or two earlier he had, indeed, induced the Parliament
of Scotland to pass an Act providing, among other things, that the
royal burghs should equip busses for the herring fishery,--a suggestion
frequently made and never well received. When the burghs were called
upon to state the number of busses they were prepared to set forth,
they declared that some of the coast towns already had vessels engaged
in this fishery, especially in summer, “att the back of the Isles
besyid the Flemeingis”; that on the coast there was more shipping for
fishing than “substance” to furnish them with or mariners to serve in
them; and that the most profitable and “easy” fishing was at the Isles
and lochs on the west coast, though they were hindered there by the
barbarous conduct of the natives. It was therefore, they said, “in
vain” to ask them to fish “in the mayne sea” when they could get this
easy and profitable fishing at the lochs and near the shore at all
seasons, in great abundance, both summer and winter.[273]
At the time the fishery scheme was under consideration some events
occurred which favoured the plans, if not of the London merchants, at
least of those who were preaching hostility to the Dutch. A chorus of
complaints came from Scotland and England as to the encroachments of
the Hollanders near the shore on the east coast, not only interfering
with the operations of the native fishermen, but breaking up and
scattering the shoals of herrings. Whereas they had been prescribed “in
ancient times” in Scotland from fishing nearer the land than they might
see the shore from the main-tops of their vessels, they now came as
near as they pleased, and would not sutler any others, whether subjects
or strangers, to fish within the bounds of their fleet, which, it was
said, extended over a space “at least forty Scottish miles in length
and twenty broad,” thus “breaking and killing” the shoals before they
could reach the mainland. They were also accused of drawing “the great
fish” (by which was meant cod, saithe, &c.) from the grounds along the
shore, by casting into the sea the guts of the herrings they cured
on board their busses. By reason of all this the Scottish fishermen,
who used to get abundant supplies at “yair awn dooris” to supply the
whole country, were now scarcely able, with great pains, to supply
their own families, and there was in consequence a general clamour in
the country, the people affirming that “the Hollanderis fishes the
meait out of thir mouthis.” The evil was felt all the more by the
Scottish fishermen because they paid three “assizes” every year for
their several fishings, each consisting of 1000 herrings, while the
Hollanders paid nothing.[274]
Early in 1609 the fishermen of the Cinque Ports, who frequented the
Yarmouth fishing in large numbers, sent a petition to the king, in
which they recited their grievances. They alleged that the laws
prohibiting the purchase from foreigners of fish unless sufficiently
salted and casked (laws which, they pointed out, had done great good in
the past, and had increased shipping and mariners) were not properly
enforced. This complaint was aimed against the Dutch, who sold large
quantities of fresh herrings at Yarmouth, and supplied London and other
towns with fresh cod. They also complained that fishermen from the
Low Countries, with a few from France, came before the fishing season
and “preoccupied and environed” the best places with their shipping,
enclosing, as in a circle, the shoals of herrings, and preventing the
native fishermen from fishing among them. They were thus deprived of
one of the best commodities of the land, and the herrings which they
were prevented from catching were taken by the Hollanders and sold
fresh on the English coast in contravention of the statutes. They said
they were threatened with utter decay and impoverishment, and were
discouraged from building barks for the Iceland fishing, which had in
the past produced numbers of good mariners, to the great honour and
defence of the realm. They pointed to the “ingenious dexterity of the
Netherlanders, who in the care and pollicy of their State, and for
the maintenance of their navigation and fishing,” had imposed a tax
of fifteen shillings on every last of herrings imported by foreigners
into their country; and they begged the king, by the justice of _lex
talionis_, to do likewise, and thus to save the poor fishermen from
the multitude of foreigners who oppressed them.[275] About this time
complaints began to be made of cruel and harsh treatment of the native
fishermen by the Dutch, but they appear to have rested on very slender
grounds.[276]
The complaints against the Hollanders gave James his opportunity.
The policy of issuing a proclamation to forbid unlicensed fishing by
foreigners on the British coasts was discussed by the Privy Council
early in the year. Doubts, however, were expressed whether such
action would be in conformity with the provisions of the “Burgundy”
treaties, which granted liberty of fishing to the Low Countries. In
the “qualification” of Rainsford’s fishery scheme the question as to
how the king’s title and rights could be proved had been answered in
a lofty spirit--“By prerogative royall, without any accompt to be
rendered to other nations; yet others to declare the reasons thereof.”
But the Privy Council had to consider the matter more carefully. They
remitted the draft proclamation to a committee consisting of Sir John
Herbert, the second Secretary, Sir Julius Cæsar, now Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Sir Daniel Dunn, Sir Thomas Crompton, and Sir Christopher
Perkins, instructing them, after perusing all the Burgundy treaties, to
report as to the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the proposed action.[277]
A fortnight later the report of the committee was sent to the Council.
They had, they said, considered of the liberty taken by the subjects
of foreign princes and states to fish upon the coasts of the King’s
Majesty, by which not only the English fishermen received wrong in
their fishing, but the very coast towns were decayed; they had also
considered the proclamation for the restraint of fishing, and had
perused the Burgundy treaties as required, and they were “of opinion
that the King’s Majesty may without breach of any treaty now in force,
or of the law, upon the reasons specified in the proclamation sent
unto us, restrain all strangers from fishing upon his coasts without
license, in such moderation and after such convenient notice given
thereof by public proclamation, as his Majesty shall think fit.”[278]
It was on this extremely important deliverance that the new policy
of interfering with the liberty of foreigners fishing on the British
coasts was based. The cautious language of the Privy Council indicates
that they were conscious of the strength of the case against them from
the existence of the Burgundy treaties; but the committee professed to
find that those treaties were no longer in force,--an argument which
was made the most of in the subsequent negotiations with the Dutch
Republic. The report was submitted to the Council in February; in
March Grotius published his _Mare Liberum_, in which he branded as
“insanely cupid” any one who attempted to interfere with the common
liberty of fishing in the sea; and within a week or two thereafter the
Truce of Antwerp was signed by Spain and the States-General, by which
the long war between those Powers was brought to a close, and James was
free to begin his policy against the Dutch fishermen. On 12th April
1609 a memorandum was drawn up for the Council, in which it was stated
(1) that a conference having been held with the fishermen concerning
the seasons of all the fishings on the coast, it was thought fit that
the proclamation should take effect from 1st August ensuing; (2) that
from that day forward it should be unlawful for any stranger to fish
“upon those his Majesty’s coasts and seas of Great Britain and Ireland
and the Isles adjacent,” where the fishing was usually carried on,
until they had obtained license for the same from the king; (3) that
commissioners should be appointed by the king, at London, for England
and Ireland, and for Scotland at such place as the king should select,
to give out licenses on such conditions as he might think fit; and (4)
that the licenses should be apportionable to the number and tonnage of
the ships.[279]
These provisions were embodied in the proclamation, which was issued
on 6th May 1609.[280] “Whereas,” said James, in his wordy style,
“we have been contented since our coming to the crown, to tolerate
an indifferent and promiscuous kind of liberty to all our friends
whatsoever, to fish within our streams, and upon any of our coasts of
Great Britain, Ireland, and other adjacent islands, so far forth as
the permission or use thereof might not redound to the impeachment
of our prerogative royal, nor to the hurt and damage of our loving
subjects, whose preservation and flourishing estate we hold ourself
principally bound to advance before all worldly respects: so finding
that our connivance therein hath not only given occasion to over
great encroachments upon our regalities, or rather questioning for
our right,[281] but hath been a means of much daily wrongs to our
own people that exercise the trade of fishing, as (either by the
multitude of strangers, which do preoccupy those places, or by the
injuries which they receive most commonly at their hands) our subjects
are constrained to abandon their fishing, or at the least are become
so discouraged in the same, as they hold it better for them to betake
themselves to some other course of living, whereby not only divers of
our coast-towns are much decayed, but the number of mariners daily
diminished, which is a matter of great consequence to our estate,
considering how much the strength thereof consisteth in the power
of shipping and use of navigation.” It was therefore both just and
necessary, the king continued, to take lawful means to put an end to
these inconveniences, although he had no intention, as he desired
the world to take notice, to deny his neighbours “those fruits and
benefits of peace and friendship” which might justly be expected at
his hands in honour and reason. He therefore gave notice to all the
world, that after 1st August 1609, “no person of what nation or quality
soever, being not our natural born subject, be permitted to fish upon
any of our coasts and seas,” “until they have orderly demanded and
obtained licenses from us,” or the commissioners appointed at London
and Edinburgh. The licenses were to be renewed yearly, “upon pain of
such chastisement as shall be fit to be inflicted upon such wilful
offenders.”[282]
[Illustration: Fig. 6.--_Facsimile of the concluding part of the Draft
of Committee’s Report to Privy Council regarding the restraint of
foreigners fishing on the British coasts._]
The prohibition of unlicensed fishing in the British or Irish seas was
general in its character, and applied to all foreigners indifferently.
But it was well understood to be aimed at the Dutch. There is no
evidence to show that any steps were taken to induce the hundred or
so of French boats that took part in the herring-fishing on the east
coast to obtain licenses; and though the Earl of Salisbury wrote a long
letter to the English ambassador at Madrid, explaining the reasons that
had induced the king to issue the proclamation, it does not appear that
the numerous Spanish fishermen who caught mackerel off the coast of
Ireland and the south-west coast of England were ever interfered with,
or asked to apply for licenses.[283]
In the United Provinces the important step taken by the King of
England was regarded with much concern. Early in June the proclamation
was discussed by the States of Holland, and it was resolved that as the
interference with the liberty of fishing was contrary to the treaties
between England and the Netherlands, the States-General should maintain
their right to fish off the British and Irish coasts.[284] This
resolution was confirmed on the same day by the States-General, and it
was decided to make representations against putting the proclamation
into force. The herring-fishing, as previously described, began in June
at Shetland, and was prosecuted down the east coast to Yarmouth, where
the busses were usually to be found in September. There was therefore
not much time to lose. Sir Noel Caron, the Dutch ambassador in London,
had several interviews on the subject with the Earl of Salisbury and
with James himself. Lord Salisbury, who was believed by Caron to be
the real author of the scheme, held out little hope of an amicable
settlement. But the good-natured king, who loved peace even more than
he loved his prerogative, was more conciliatory. He explained to Sir
Noel that the proclamation was for the purpose of introducing better
order into the fishery, and to make manifest to the world the authority
and power which he had on the sea,[285] and was not meant in any way
to wrong the States, either by hostile force or otherwise. The French
Government had in the meantime moved in the matter. At first nothing
was said to our ambassador at Paris about the proclamation, and he
thought it “no wisdom” to speak about it to them unless they raised
the question. This they did later, either on account of the French
fishermen or at the instigation of the Dutch, and a year’s respite
was granted.[286] Caron learned the welcome intelligence from the
French ambassador in London, that a promise had been made to him that
the project would proceed no further until after mutual negotiations,
which would occupy the whole of that year.[287] Sir Ralph Winwood, who
was appointed English ambassador at The Hague in August 1609, also had
conferences about the proclamation with Barnevelt, whose authority
in Holland was then supreme. He was told that the States would send
special ambassadors to the king, “to acknowledge those many royal
favours they had received from him,” and to treat of the liberty of
fishing. Meantime their ambassador in London had been instructed to
beseech the king to have patience with their people “trading” on his
coasts, and that “without impeachment they might use their accustomed
liberty and ancient privileges.”[288]
Sir Noel Caron had also discussions in London with respect to the
legality of imposing any tax on Dutch fishermen, the principle of which
he could not well understand. As previously mentioned, one of the
precedents upon which James founded his claim to impose tribute was
the payment by Scottish fishermen of the so-called “assize-herrings.”
This was an ancient tax or custom of a thousand herrings levied from
each fishing-boat employed at the herring fishery, and they belonged
to the king as part of the crown revenues.[289] From the extent of
the Dutch herring fishery it is evident that a similar tax imposed on
it would have brought in a goodly sum annually to the king’s coffers.
A few years later, when James did attempt to collect the tax from
the Dutch fishermen, each buss was to be charged an “assize duty” of
10,000 herrings, or £66, 13s. 4d. Scots, which was equal to about £5,
11s. 1d. sterling; so that if the duty had been exacted from the 2000
herring-boats fishing on the coast the crown would have benefited to
the extent of about £11,000 a year, and the Hollanders would have been
all that the poorer.
When the principle of the assize-herring was explained to the Dutch
ambassador, he appears to have devoted some attention to it. He argued
that although the Scots Acts showed that the assize-herrings had been
exacted from the Scottish fishermen in the firths on the east and west
coasts, the tax had never been imposed in the north seas and at the
Isles (Shetlands) where the Hollander busses fished; it would therefore
be an “innovation” to enforce the payment there now. He further averred
that treaties between King James and the United Provinces existed by
which Dutch fishermen were freed from any payment to the king for
fishing on his coasts and seas. Moreover, he declared the sea was
free to all, _mare est liberum_, and consequently there was no king
nor lord to be acknowledged upon the sea, “but every stranger may
fish over all the seas where he pleases, without asking license, or
paying any toll or duty whatsoever.” It was moreover apparent, apart
from considerations of principle as to the freedom of the sea, that no
certainty existed that the king, or a successor, would not raise the
tax, if once imposed, as the King of Denmark had done with the dues at
the Sound, until they became a heavy burden.
A Scottish lawyer, probably in the service of the crown, in reply to
the objections of Sir Noel Caron, argued that it could not be called
an “innovation” to exact the tribute, if the herrings swam from the
ancient places of their resort and appeared in new places in his
Majesty’s seas, where the tax was not previously levied, or because
there was an “oversight” in levying it in olden times when, he said,
there was little fishing in the north seas and about the Isles, and
the cost of collecting it would have been great. As for treaties, it
was most improbable that any stranger would ask or king grant that
strangers should be more free to fish “within the seas of the king’s
dominions” than the native subjects of the kingdom. But even if such
grant had been made, it could not stand good in law, because it was
“repugnant to reason.” By negligence, he said, the Hollanders had
been allowed two advantages. In ancient times they were “appointed”
to fish no nearer the land than they could see the shore from their
main-tops; but now they fished as near as they pleased, excluding the
natives and breaking up the shoals. Then, while the natives had to pay
three assizes yearly, the Dutch were “as yet” asked to pay only one,
though many of the busses made three voyages in a year. And if the sea
was free to all, why had the Netherlanders entered into treaties for
freedom of fishing? By making covenants with the kings of Scotland,
“and taking liberty of them to fish within the Scottish seas,” they
had “disclaimed _mare liberum_ and acknowledged the Kings of Scotland
to be Lords of these Seas.” Why should the Dutch alone object, if
the natives, the French, and all other foreigners willingly pay the
assize-herring?[290] It was, however, untrue to say that the tax was
paid by the French or other foreign fishermen. Even Scottish fishermen
who fished at the North Isles were exempt; and when an attempt was made
some years later to force them to pay, the burghs obtained a decree of
_absolvitor_ from the court and the Privy Council, on the ground that
the tax could only be levied on “green” or fresh fish landed, and not
on herrings cured on board (see p. 166).
In the spring of 1610 James’s proclamation was again taken into
consideration by the States of Holland and the States-General, and it
was resolved to send an embassy to London, primarily to thank the king
for his friendly offices in connection with the conclusion of the truce
with Spain, but in reality to deal with the fishery question and some
other matters. One of the ambassadors was Joachimi, who afterwards
represented the States at the English Court for over twenty-five
years. Another was Elias van Oldenbarnevelt, a brother of the great
statesman who was then at the head of affairs in the Netherlands,
and to him the business of the fishing was specially committed. They
arrived in England on 14th April, and had an audience with the king a
few days later and another with the Privy Council. They asked for an
assurance that the king’s proclamation was not meant to extend to the
United Provinces, since he was in alliance with them, and treaties
existed between the two countries. But the Earl of Salisbury plainly
told them that the principal motive of the proclamation arose from the
multitude and disorder of their fishermen, “who had wholly drawn the
fishing to themselves, to the destruction of his Majesty’s people and
coast-towns”; and they were invited to further conference.[291]
On the 6th May, exactly a year after the publication of the
proclamation, the ambassadors had a formal conference with Sir Julius
Cæsar, Sir Thomas Parry, Sir Daniel Dunn, Sir Christopher Perkins,
Dr Henry Marten (Advocate-General), and Levinus Muncke, a Fleming,
and “clerk to his Majesty’s Signet.” The English commissioners
began the discussion by justifying the proclamation on the grounds
previously indicated. The Dutch contended for complete freedom of
fishing, resting their case on arguments drawn from the civil law, on
immemorial possession, on the existence of treaties, and on political
considerations. They said the United Provinces had always been in
peaceful possession of free fishing, and that from time immemorial
they had enjoyed complete liberty to fish over the whole sea, both
as a matter of usage and of right. To disturb them by force in the
enjoyment of that right would be unjust. Besides, by the Law of Nations
the boundless and rolling sea was as common to all people as the
air, “which no prince could prohibit.” No prince, they said, could
“challenge further into the sea than he can command with a cannon,
except gulfs within their land from one point to another,”--the first
occasion on which this principle for delimiting territorial waters,
afterwards so celebrated, appears to have been advanced.[292]
[Illustration: Fig. 7.--_Facsimile of Minute of the Declaration of the
Dutch Envoys as to the range of guns._]
Besides these more or less abstract arguments, the ambassadors made a
strong case by reason of the treaties in which liberty of fishing was
stipulated. It is noteworthy that they referred to only one of the
treaties with England, the Intercursus Magnus of 1496, while they laid
stress on the treaties with Scotland in 1541, 1550, and especially in
1594, when James himself was on the throne of the northern kingdom
(see p. 81). They further declared that there were reasons of state
which forbade the United Provinces from allowing the free use of the
sea to be disputed. More than 20,000 mariners were maintained by the
herring fishery alone, besides other 40,000 people who gained their
livelihood by making nets, packing the fish, and in other industries
depending upon the fishery. The power and security of the country and
much of its commerce rested on the fishery. As for the complaint that
the decay of English coast-towns was caused by their fishing off the
coast, it was explained that they only fished there for herrings which
were cured on board, and that this industry had been discovered by
themselves, which gave them a prior claim to it. The English were free
to carry on the herring fishery themselves, though, they dexterously
added, it was a business that required much experience, and it would be
a long time before they succeeded, especially as heavy losses sometimes
occurred, which the Dutch were able to bear, since they lived cheaply
and each of the 60,000 people mentioned were “adventurers,” the losses
being thus spread over a great number. They suggested that the English
had given up the fishery because they had found a more comfortable
livelihood in other ways.[293]
On the other side, the English commissioners argued that by the custom
of nations the king had a right to the whole of the seas around his
coasts; and this right was exercised by other countries, as Spain,
France, Denmark, Sweden, Venice, Genoa, and Russia, and generally by
all maritime states; and it was not opposed to the Roman law or the
teachings of the Civilians. They admitted that the sea was free for
navigation, but denied that it was free for fishing. All the kings of
England since Edgar had the adjoining seas under their jurisdiction,
and had always received “consideration” for the fishing within them.
The commissioners evidently felt that the treaties offered the greatest
difficulty to the policy of James, and they contended that all the
Burgundy treaties had become obsolete for a variety of reasons. The
great treaty of 1496 had lost its effect, inasmuch as a later treaty in
1520 (which, however, dealt with quite other things) did not confirm
it. The treaties, moreover, had been made with the House of Burgundy,
and concerned only the subjects of that house; but there were now no
subjects of the Duke of Burgundy; and the Dutch at least could not
found upon those treaties, because they had themselves broken and
transgressed them. Even if those old treaties could be supposed to be
in force and provided liberty of fishing without license, that could
not mean without the payment of the usual dues, customs, and taxes.
Besides, when the treaties were made the circumstances were different.
The fishing of the Netherlanders was not then so disagreeable to this
country as it was now; then about 100 vessels came to fish, while now
they sent 2000. The king was therefore not bound to tolerate them any
longer.
The negotiations between the English and Dutch commissioners went
on for a short time, the arguments on either side being elaborated
without much hope of agreement, when an event occurred that brought
them to a sudden end. This was the assassination of King Henry IV. of
France, the head of the Protestant League, which made James anxious
to retain the goodwill and alliance of the Dutch Republic, in view of
his relations with Spain. On 14th May the ambassadors were told by the
Earl of Salisbury that while the king held his right to forbid the
Netherlanders to fish on his coasts to be indubitable, he, “out of his
great love to the Low Countries, would forbear to proceed according to
the proclamation.”[294] At the farewell audience James used very kind
expressions. He made the remarkable but characteristic statement to
the ambassadors that he had issued the proclamation owing to the just
complaints of his subjects, not from the solicitation of courtesans
or courtiers.[295] He assured them of his affection towards them and
the preservation of their state, “which next unto his own he held most
dear above all other respects in the world.” As for the business of the
fishing, he thought it was not fit now to spend more time on it, but to
refer it to some better season, and in the meantime, he said, things
would remain as they were.[296] This termination to the negotiations
was naturally gratifying to the Dutch. Barnevelt and the States-General
had become somewhat anxious as to the issue, and the ambassadors had
been instructed to try to get the matter shelved for a little. Although
James had suspended the operation of the proclamation, however, he
had not withdrawn it. The question was merely postponed to a more
convenient season.
The failure to carry out the policy of exacting tribute from the Dutch
fishermen was fatal to the scheme of the London merchants to form a
Society of Fishing Merchants. Rainsford wrote to Lord Salisbury in
October 1609 expressing his fears that the Earl disapproved of the
project to raise a great revenue to the king for the fishing in his
seas;[297] and in 1611 he again addressed a memorandum to the Earl,
answering various objections that had been raised to the scheme, and
renewing the offer for farming the tribute.
The plans to form a national herring fishery founded on taxation of
the Dutch having failed, others were brought forward on the basis
of receiving special privileges and immunities from the crown.
One proceeded so far towards realisation, that in December 1611 a
corporation was formed, consisting of a governor, deputy-governor, a
treasurer, twenty-four “consuls,” with “searchers” (cure-masters),
gaugers, and other officials, in imitation of the Dutch system. The
administration was to be general “for matter of order, and particular
for matter of adventure,” leaving every town at liberty to venture for
itself; and laws and ordinances were drawn up for the central body in
London and the affiliated societies throughout the country. Since the
money necessary was to be found by private individuals, a number of
privileges were asked from the Government. One of these, which made it
lawful for the corporation to carry their fish abroad and to bring back
commodities in exchange, “from all parts wheresoever, notwithstanding
any former privileges to the contrary,” was strenuously opposed by all
the trading companies, and in particular by the Merchant Adventurers,
who objected that it would be most injurious to their great trade in
cloth.[298] This opposition killed the “business of the busses,” as the
fishing project was popularly called. Writing ten years later, Gerard
Malynes, a London merchant and author, who appears to have been one of
the promoters and to have spent both time and money on it, deplored
the failure of this society, which he said was due to the opposition
of the Merchant Adventurers, the Russia Company, and the Eastland
Merchants.[299]
Within a year or two another project came from an unexpected quarter.
No less a personage than the queen became a suppliant for a royal
patent empowering her to compound with strangers for licenses to
fish on the British coasts. The arguments adduced from the point of
view of benefit to the nation were of the usual kind; but others of
a more or less domestic nature were added, which must have appealed
to the heart of her consort. “It is desired by the Queene,” proceeds
the petition, “that the King’s Majesty will be pleased to graunt unto
her a Pattent of theis fishings under his Majesty’s great Seales of
England and Scotland, whereby her Majesty may have power to graunt
lycense and to compound with these strangers for an yearly revenue to
be paid unto her Majestie for theis fishings.” By this means a great
revenue would be drawn into the country, which would be sufficient to
support and maintain her estate, “and so his Majesty’s coffers will
be spared.” She promised besides that she would give him a full fifth
of the amount she obtained; and another advantage would be that the
king would be “royally invested in possession of his undoubted right,
which,” she naïvely added, “hath never ben yet obtayned by anie of his
royall progenitors.” The petition was brought before the Privy Council,
who decided that the proposal was not feasible, as it depended upon “so
many points of question and circumstance between us and the House of
Burgundy in former times, and the States of the Low Countries and us
for the present.”[300]
In her petition the queen referred to the proposal to build a number of
busses. While explaining that her project would not prevent the king
or any of his subjects from building busses if they so desired, she
questioned whether that plan would be successful. Some men, indeed, of
great judgment, she said, were of opinion that the king would reap no
benefit at all in that way, for 1000 busses was “the least number that
could be thought to doe any good upon this fishing,” and each would
cost £1000 at least, while £100 a-year would be required for repairs,
and 20,000 men would be needed to man them.
About this time several works were published giving details as to the
cost and equipment of herring-busses,[301] but little was accomplished.
The net result in 1614 was that one Richard Godsdue, Esquire, of
Bucknam Ferry, in Norfolk, had five busses on the stocks at Yarmouth,
and Sir William Harvey had built a large one at Limehouse. But all the
efforts made in the reign of James, and indeed throughout the whole
century, to form a great national fishery on the model of the Dutch
completely failed. It required nearly two centuries of experience, and
the squandering of vast sums of money, to teach the people that a great
industry could not be suddenly created in this way by servile imitation
of a system not suited to the natural circumstances of the case. It was
chiefly by the gradual evolution of the Scottish herring-boat, and not
by the building of busses, that the herring industry was wrested from
the Dutch.
James was doubtless privy to the queen’s petition before it was
officially considered,[302] and he appears not to have been satisfied
with the decision of the Council. At all events, the question of the
fisheries was still kept alive. In the spring of 1614 we find Wotton
writing from The Hague to Secretary Winwood, saying that he still had
his Majesty’s commission regarding the fishings, and that it was, as
Winwood said, “a tender and dainty piece,” adding that though he had
seen Mr Barnevelt on several occasions he had not mentioned the matter
to him, and was waiting for a suitable time to speak of this “dainty
and delicate business.”[303] Later in the year, the Keeper of the State
Papers was requested by the Lord Chancellor and the Archbishop of
Canterbury to search the records in his custody relating to the king’s
jurisdiction on the sea and his right to the fishing. “Whereas,” they
said, “there is occasion for his Majesty’s special service to look out
such precedents and records as concern his Majesty’s power, right, and
sovereign jurisdiction of the seas and fishing upon the coast; and
that we are informed there are many of that kind among the records in
your custody, we do hereby require you to make your personal repair
hither to seek out all such precedents and papers as are remaining
there and do any way concern that business,” and to hold them ready for
inspection.[304]
This search was doubtless in connection with the subject of the
assize-herrings mentioned in the next chapter, but that the queen’s
scheme had been revived is evident from the action of Sir Noel Caron.
As soon as he got wind of it, he wrote hurriedly to the States-General
stating that the king had assigned to the queen for twenty-one years
the revenue to be derived from taxing the herring-busses, and that
no one would be allowed to fish on the coasts of England or Scotland
without her consent.[305] This letter was at once considered by the
Dutch Government. A committee was appointed to look into the treaties
bearing on the question and the instructions which had been given to
the ambassadors in 1610, and to report as to what action should be
taken; but it was finally resolved to await further developments in
England before interfering, and at the beginning of November Caron was
able to announce that the danger had passed.[306]
At this period there were other disputes with England that caused
apprehension in Holland. One referred to the trade in cloth, and in a
proclamation which prohibited the export of wool[307] James took the
opportunity to extol the commanding situation of the British Isles for
navigation and trade, and to draw a parallel between the commodities of
wool on land and fish in the sea, “which,” he said, “are the Adamants
that draw and govern all other Trade and Merchandizing”--language
which led the Dutch to think the proclamation anent unlicensed fishing
was about to be renewed. Another referred to the whale fishery at
Spitzbergen, which was claimed both by the Dutch and the British, and
was regarded by James as being within his maritime dominion. It led,
as shall be seen, to an interesting contest for _mare clausum_ in the
Arctic Seas.