Industrial arts -- Biography; Inventors -- Biography
"Look," he said, "on these fellows, that we call the plump Hollanders;
behold their diligence in fishing, and our own careless negligence!"
The Dutch not only fished along the coasts near Yarmouth, but their
fishing vessels went north as far as the coasts of Shetland. What most
roused Mr. Gentleman's indignation was, that the Dutchmen caught the
fish and sold them to the Yarmouth herring-mongers "for ready gold, so
that it amounteth to a great sum of money, which money doth never come
again into England." "We are daily scorned," he says, "by these
Hollanders, for being so negligent of our Profit, and careless of our
Fishing; and they do daily flout us that be the poor Fishermen of
England, to our Faces at Sea, calling to us, and saying, 'Ya English,
ya sall or oud scoue dragien;' which, in English, is this, 'You
English, we will make you glad to wear our old Shoes!'"
Another pamphlet, to a similar effect, 'The Royal Fishing revived,'[17]
was published fifty years later, in which it was set forward that the
Dutch "have not only gained to themselves almost the sole fishing in
his Majesty's Seas; but principally upon this Account have very near
beat us out of all our other most profitable Trades in all Parts of the
World." It was even proposed to compel "all Sorts of begging Persons
and all other poor People, all People condemned for less Crimes than
Blood," as well as "all Persons in Prison for Debt," to take part in
this fishing trade! But this was not the true way to force the
traffic. The herring fishery at Yarmouth and along the coast began to
make gradual progress with the growth of wealth and enterprise
throughout the country; though it was not until 1787--less than a
hundred years ago--that the Yarmouth men began the deep-sea herring
fishery.
Before then, the fishing was all carried on along shore in little
cobles, almost within sight of land. The native fishery also extended
northward, along the east coast of Scotland and the Orkney and Shetland
Isles, until now the herring fishery of Scotland forms one of the
greatest industries in the United Kingdom, and gives employment,
directly or indirectly, to close upon half a million of people, or to
one-seventh of the whole population of Scotland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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