History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 174

privilege. This caused a great commotion in Holland, and the fishermen refused to pay
the tax. In 1616 the royal officers charged with collecting it were attacked and carried
off to Holland; violent quarrels, destruction of nets, and finally actual outbreaks
between fishermen of the Netherlands and those of English and Scottish nationality
resulted, and an open breach between England and the States was with difficulty
avoided.
The Elizabethan measures to protect the fisheries could hardly have been very
successful, for we find patriotic Englishmen in the 17th century just as concerned
about the state of the fishing industry. John Smith in England's Improvement Revived
(1673) pointed out that a flourishing fishing industry was the very foundation of Dutch
prosperity; Misselden in his Free Trade (1662) complained of the encroachment of the
Dutch on our herring fishery; Tobias Gentleman in England's Way to Win Wealth
(1614) gave various suggestions on the subject, while in Britain's Buss (1615)
Englishmen were urged to build their fishing-busses on the Dutch model. In this
century, too, there were attempts to develop fishing by the formation of companies
wealthy enough to undertake the business on a large scale. The Company of the
Royal Fishery of England was never very prosperous; it soon expended its original
capital, and the subscribers of a second stock in 1683 were equally unfortunate. An
attempt to found a similar company was made in 1750, the special object being to gain
the white herring fishery from the Dutch, while the cod fishery was also to be
attempted; this company, too, never answered the expectations of its promoters.
It required war to equalize matters between English and Dutch fishers. The Dutch
herring-fleet suffered grievously in the second half of the 17th century, as very many
busses were captured by English, French, and Swedish privateers, and whole fleets
were frequently destroyed, especially during the English wars. By the end of this
century the Dutch fishery had greatly fallen off, and Scottish fishermen were beginning
to drive the Dutch from the world's markets. Nevertheless intercourse has continued
ever since, especially in the North Sea grounds and on the Dogger Bank.
5. 3.
A few names of kinds of fish were introduced from Low Dutch into Middle English.
Schulle (a. 1300, Havelok), a plaice; probably ad. M.Du. or MLG. schulle, scholle.
Butt (a. 1300, Havelok), a name applied variously in different places to kinds of flatfish
as sole, fluke, turbot, &c.; as Da. bøtte, Sw. butta are from Low Dutch, it is improbable
that the Eng. word is from Scand.; the more probable origin is MLG. but (LG. butte) or
M.Du. botte, butte; Havelok is a poem of Lincolnshire