The resolve of the King in 1610 to postpone any action in the matter
of his proclamation on the fisheries question seems not to have
aroused any popular expression of disapproval. The English people
were from the political and religious standpoint well disposed to
the Dutch. What they suspected and dreaded was the King's obvious
leaning to Spain. Their intense dislike to the Spanish marriage,
concerning which it was common knowledge that negotiations were
on foot, led them to favour a good understanding with the United
Provinces. But the spectacle of the growing Dutch monopoly of the
carrying trade, and the decline of English commerce in the face of
these formidable rivals, could not fail before long to stir public
opinion.
A succession of noteworthy pamphlets drew attention to the subject.
Foremost among these, from the personality of the writer, was
Ralegh's[18] _Observations touching trade and commerce with the
Hollanders and others, wherein is proved that our sea and land
commodities serve to enrich and strengthen other countries than
our own_. These _Observations_ were, as the title page informs us,
presented to King James, and there are indications that the date
of their presentation was about the time of the Dutch embassy of
1610. Their object was to show how Dutch trade was prospering at
the expense of that of England. Ralegh pointed out in particular
the immense profit derived by the Hollanders from their fishing
in the British seas, and he asks why 'this great sea-business of
fishing' should not be kept in English hands, and suggests that the
King should appoint Commissioners to inquire into the matter, and
'forthwith set forward some scheme for preventing foreigners from
reaping all the fruits of this lucrative industry on his Majesty's
coasts.' He warns the King that 'the Hollanders possess already
as many ships as eleven kingdoms, England being one of them', and
expresses his conviction that 'they [the Hollanders] hoped to get
the whole trade and shipping of Christendom into their own hands, as
well for transportation, as otherwise for the command and mastery of
the seas.'
[18] Ralegh's _Works_, viii. 351-76.
Ralegh's pamphlet did not affect the King's decision to defer, for
political reasons, taking any active steps concerning the fisheries,
but we may well believe that the hint about 'the command and mastery
of the seas' would not pass unheeded. It touched a question about
which James was peculiarly sensitive. That question, though for a
few years apparently dormant, was one that neither King nor people
could afford to disregard. The command of the sea--then as at all
times--was vital to an island power. The English were beginning to
see in the Dutch not merely competitors in trade, who were ousting
them from every market, but possible rivals for the dominion even
of those 'narrow seas[19]' in which the Kings of England had so
long claimed to have paramount sovereignty and jurisdiction.
Thus a feeling of dissatisfaction and resentment gathered head
which found vent, as was the custom of those days, in political
pamphlet-writing. Two of these pamphlets[20], no less than that of
Ralegh, call for particular notice, for they are full of material
bearing upon the subject of the relations between the English and
Dutch at the time of their publication, and throwing light upon the
causes of the growing estrangement between the two people.
[19] See Note B.
[20] See Note.
_England's Way to win Wealth_, by Tobias Gentleman, Fisherman
and Mariner, bears the date 1614. The purpose of the writer is
thoroughly practical. He sets out in great detail the statistics
of the fisheries on the British coasts, and of the immense profits
derived by the Hollanders from the pursuit of this industry, and
he then proceeds to urge upon his countrymen to take a lesson from
the foreigners, and not to neglect, as they are doing, a source of
wealth which lies at their very doors. The following quotation is
a good specimen of the homely vigour and directness of Gentleman's
arguments; it will be seen that here, as throughout the pamphlet,
they profess to be based on his own personal experience:--
'What their [the Hollanders] chiefest trade is, or their
principal gold mine is well known to all merchants, that have
used those parts, and to myself and all fishermen; namely,
that his Majesty's seas is their chiefest, principal, and only
rich treasury whereby they have so long maintained their wars,
and have so greatly prospered and enriched themselves. If
their little country of the United Provinces can do this (as
is most manifest before our eyes they do) then what may we,
his Majesty's subjects, do, if this trade of fishing were once
erected among us, we having, in our own countries, sufficient
store of all necessaries to accomplish the like business?...
And shall we neglect so great blessings, O slothful England and
careless countrymen! Look but on these fellows, that we call the
plump Hollanders, behold their diligence in fishing and our own
careless negligence.'[21]
[21] _Harleian Misc._ iii, pp. 397-8.
Another pamphlet, _The Trades Increase_[22], was of wider scope. It
was directly inspired, as its anonymous author J. R. informs us, by
the reading of _England's Way to win Wealth_. It deals not only with
the question of the fisheries, but of shipping and trade generally,
and rightly with shipping first of all. 'As concerning ships,' J.
R. writes--and how true do his words ring in an Englishman's ears
to-day--'by these in a manner we live, the kingdom is, the King
reigneth.... If we want ships, we are dissolved.' As Gentleman's
pamphlet is valuable for its detailed statistics of the fishing
industry of the Hollanders, even more so is that of J. R. for its
broad survey of and comparison between the Dutch and English trade
in every part of the world. From country to country and sea to sea
in all branches of commerce he shows how the English are being
driven out by their more enterprising competitors.
[22] _Ibid._ iv, pp. 212-31.
'In consequence want of employment is breeding discontents and
miseries, while the means for remedying threatened disaster
are in our own hands, the place our own seas and within his
Majesty's dominions.'
Nor is J. R. content with mere assertion. Basing his arguments
on those of Gentleman, he proceeds to set forth how by the
encouragement of English fishing
'we shall repair our Navy, breed seamen abundantly, enrich the
subject, advance the King's custom, and assure the Kingdom, and
all this out of fishing and especially out of herrings.'