£ 14 .
Chap. XVI. Arp. No. 6 .
Extracts from a Paper read before the States of Sweden in
a General Diet held at Stockholm in 1746 'and. 1717, entitled the
‘ Dutch Gold Mine . ’
About 200 years ago, an Englishman, William Belkinson,taught the Dutch the manner of dressing, salting, and barrel-ling herrings. He taught them how to take and salt cod uponthe sea coasts. So industrious were the Dutch , and so muchdid the trade increase, that in 1601 the Dutch fitted out 900vessels, and 1500 busses, for the cod and herring fishery. Eachof these 1500 busses employed other three vessels to supply themwith salt and empty barrels, and to transport the fish ; so that6900 vessels were employed in this trade.
Sir Walter Haleigh assured James I. that the Dutch fished onthe coasts of Britain with 3000 vessels, and 50,000 men, exclu-sive of the vessels employed in transporting their herrings to o-ther countries ; which, according to him, amounted to 9000, and150,000 men. He added, that 20 busses of herrings were suf-ficient for the maintenance of 8000 souls, comprehending wo-men and children ; and that the Dutch had annually 20,000 ves-sels at sea for the sole article of fishing.
M. D’Aitzema, resident from the Hans Towns at the Hague ,and the celebrated Du Morelin, certify, that in their time theDutch drew from the sea 300,000 tons of herrings and other saltfish.
Dr Benjamin Worsley , Secretary of State for the Departmentsof Trade and Plantations to Charles II., was sent to Holland in1667 to inform himself exactly of the fishery which the Dutch carried on in the North Sea . By his report, the Dutch herringfishery amounted to three millions Sterling. He proved this bythe number of busses, then 1600 ;—by the quantity of fish tak-en by each buss;—by the customhouse accounts of Holland ,Zealand, and Friezland ;—and by the price of fish in every placeto which the Dutch went. This value exceeded the manufac-tures of England at that time, or the mines of America .
Sir Walter demonstrated, that 1000/. employed in the fisherymaintained more people than 5000/. in any other branch of com.merce. One buss bred 10 sailors.
De Witt , the pensionary, published his werk in 1662, viz. the* Fundamental Maxims of the Republic of Hqlland; ’ and he cal',pulates that 750,000 people lived by the fishery.