The sovereignty of the seas had in this way developed a trade value; yet, whatever may have been the real and underlying causes, the contests for the supremacy which for the next hundred years kept simmering between the nations, bursting out at times into blasts of open war, arose ostensibly from disputes between the guardians of the rival fleets regarding the honourable precedence to be accorded to their respective flags. The sea-rovers of Elizabeth had developed into something very like "gentleman-buccaneers." They ranged the oceans, preying upon the Spanish and Portuguese ships wherever they were to be found, and returned in joyousness, bringing home their booty. The maritime eagerness of the people was whetted by these prizes, and it is said that even the Queen herself was not averse to accepting from her good subjects, Drake and Hawkins, a share of the proceeds of their prowess. The reign of the Jack of James I. had scarce begun when a neighbouring maritime rival arose to assume formidable proportions. Nurtured in the hardy school of their fishing fleets, and practised in distant voyages by traffic with their possessions in the East Indies, the Dutch merchantmen not only copied the English methods of preying abroad on the ships of other nations, but also began to employ themselves actively in carrying the water-borne business of their own merchants, and next, which was an intrusion much more objectionable, to enter into competition with the English ships in carrying the merchandise for the other nations of Europe. Thus the passage of the Dutch fleets along the coasts of Europe greatly increased. As soon as the Spanish war was over, Sir William Monson, the Admiral of the Narrow Seas, demanded that the ships of all other nations should, as of old, lower their flags in the presence of his own, "a courtesy which could not," he announced, "be challenged by right, but now that the war was ended, His Majesty James I. demanded the full recognition of such rights and duties as belonged to his predecessors."[48] [48] Monson's "Naval Tracts." These old rights the Admiral and his officers accordingly proceeded to enforce.