The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

In 1719 the States General forbade the export of brine and string for nets,
and in 1725, drift nets. Import and export of bands for barrels was
forbidden in 1750. Impost on victuals and salt for herring vessels was
abolished as were export duties on salted herring. These measures were
introduced between 1750 and 1754. The unofficial rule, dating back to
1663, that only Great Fishery members could gut their herring was
hardened into a monopoly.
Financial support was introduced by the provincial authorities. In the
1750s the States of Zeeland began to pay their provincial fishermen a
bounty per vessel. The financial consequences for Zeeland were
calculable, for the number of vessels was small. Britain had set an
example. The States of Holland did not immediately follow. For the bulk
of the fisheries was settled in that province. In 1775, however, Holland
could no longer abstain from financial support. A herring shipowner
would now receive a bounty of 500 Dutch guilders for each vessel
equipped in a certain year. In 1788 this measure was extended to the
Icelandic cod fishery. Whaling vessels were treated accordingly. 192
The effect of state protection and support is uncertain. The best one
can say about it is that it may have slowed down the decline. Neither the
regimes installed by the French around 1800 nor the new kingdom of the
Netherlands changed the policy. Also the coastal fishery could now rely
upon bounties. The regulations around gutted and ungutted herring were
even extended. The fisheries walked down a dead-end road. Various
shipowners needed the bounty to balance expenses and the catch’s yield.
For the coastal fisheries from the 1820s to the 1850s current research is
going to prove that it could not have survived without bounties. Only by
a combination of trawl and drift net (for the ungutted salted herring)
during the year plus the bounties did fishermen and shipowners survive.
Without bounties government would have had to spend more on
poor-relief, a contemporary observed.
After the 1848 “revolution”, liberal ideology ran through ministries.
The fisheries were one of the most protected industries. The bounties
should disappear and the value of all existing laws and regulations be
seriously reconsidered. In February 1854 a state commission began this
work. Seven months later its report was ready, advising the abolition of
laws and regulations and pleading liberty. One regulation, however,
should be maintained. Inspection and control of the quality of the
192 De Vries, De economische achteruitgang, 147-49.
115