George Edmundson - Anglo-Dutch Rivalry during the First Half of the Seventeenth Century

The Dutch force in 1615 was, however, far stronger, and no hostilities took place. For the same reason an armed peace was maintained in 1617, but in the following year acts of aggression were committed, and loud complaints were raised on both sides. An attempt was now made by the King to strengthen the hands of the Muscovy Company by sanctioning for the purposes of the whale fishery an alliance with the East India Company. The two companies were, as far as regards the Spitzbergen enterprise, to be regarded as one, thus making a larger amount of capital available for the outfit of the fishing fleet and for the maintenance of the storage huts and so-called 'cookeries' on shore. Thirteen well-equipped ships sailed for Spitzbergen in 1618, and an even superior number from Holland and Zeeland, accompanied by two war vessels. Neither the English nor the Dutch sailors were in the mood to brook interference, and from the outset it was almost certain that if they met there would be mischief. The English were the first aggressors, but were in their turn attacked by the Dutch with the result that their fleet was dispersed and many of their vessels plundered. The 'Greenland' fisheries question had reached an acute stage. Such a condition of things could not continue, and Sir Dudley Carleton, the English ambassador, appeared in person before the States-General (October 3, 1618) to utter a strong remonstrance and to urge the States, if they wished to remain on good terms with the King, to dispatch a special embassy to deal with the disputes that had arisen between the two countries, not only concerning the 'Greenland' fishing, but in the East Indies, and about the herring fishery and the cloth trade also.

At this point, before giving an account of the embassy of 1618, we must turn back and bring up to date the history of the herring fishery question from 1610, when the execution of the proclamation requiring a licence from the fishermen was postponed, and also briefly touch upon the two other causes of grievance in regard to the cloth trade and the disputes between the two East India Companies.

For several years after the return of the embassy of 1610 the Dutch herring fishery appears to have been quietly carried on as usual without let or hindrance from the English Government. No attempt was made to enforce the proclamation until 1616. The cause of the alteration of James's policy at that date was due to the refusal of the States-General to admit English dyed cloths into the United Provinces. The manufacture of woollen cloth had long been the chief of English industries, and the monopoly of the trade in wool and woollen goods in the Netherlands, Northern France and Western Germany had been in the hands of one of the oldest of English Chartered Companies, the Fellowship of Merchant Adventurers 28 28 See Note D. , whose first charter was granted by Henry VI in 1462. The Adventurer's Court and Staple were for many years placed at Antwerp. But in 1568 they were driven away from the Netherlands by Alva, and forced to settle elsewhere. They went first to Emden, then to Hamburg. But the Hanse towns were jealous of their trade and prosperity, and the Emperor was induced in 1597 to banish them from Germany. At this date the authority of Spain was no longer recognized north of the Scheldt. The Adventurers accordingly in 1598 moved to Middelburg in Zeeland, and extensive privileges were conferred upon them by the States-General, the States of Zeeland, and the town of Middelburg, including freedom from duties on imports or exports, as well as from charges for staple rights and harbour dues, and the right to be tried in their own courts.

The trade of the Adventurers consisted entirely in undyed cloths. The English, though the best weavers of woollen cloth in the world, had not learnt as yet the art of dyeing, and the unfinished cloths were imported into the Netherlands, there to be dressed and dyed for the continental markets. The consequence was that a great industry sprang up in the provinces, especially in Holland, and many thousands of skilled hands were employed in this work.

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See the admirable monograph on the subject by the late Professor Robert Fruin, Tien Jaren uit de Tachtigjarigen Oorlog, 1588-98 .

The towns of Flushing and Brill and the fort of Rammekens were delivered into the hands of Elizabeth, as security for repayment.

Res. Holl. June 12, 1609.

Res. St. – Gen. June 12, 1609.

Art. 6 of the Treaty between James and the States, July 6 (June 25, 1609, o.s.).

Winwood, Memorials , vol. iii.

The Zeelanders in the seventeenth century, though they sent out many fishermen to the Dogger Bank, to Greenland and Spitzbergen, did not take much part in the herring fishery. See note.

Groot Placaet-Boek (July 19, 1606).

A Pollitique Platt , by Robert Hitchcock, 1580.

Observations made upon the Dutch fishery about the year 1601 , by John Keymer. Ralegh, Works , i. 144.

Sir Thomas Overbury's observations in his travels in 1609: Harleian Misc. viii. 349.

Discourse addressed to the King by Sir Nicholas Hales, on the benefit derived by the Dutch from English fisheries. Terms suggested for granting them a licence to fish for twenty-one years. Calendar of State Papers, Dom. Ser., 1603-10 , p. 509.

Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser., 1603-10 , p. 509.

Statutes of the Realm , iv. 2, p. 1058.

Letter of Salisbury to Cornwallis, June 8, 1609. Winwood's State Papers , iii. 44-50.

Fruin's Verspreide Geschriften , vol. iii, pp. 408-45.

Winwood's Memorials , March 16, (o.s.), 1610. See also letter of April 6 (o.s.).

See Note C.

Relazioni venete , Inghilterra , serie iv, p. 128.

See Note A.

Ralegh's Works , viii. 351-76.

See Note B.

See Note.

Harleian Misc. iii, pp. 397-8.

Ibid. iv, pp. 212-31.

Relazioni Venete , Inghilterra , iv. 206.

Ranke, Hist. of England (Oxf. trans.), i. 473.

Dated Jan. 6/16. Letters to and from Sir Dudley Carleton during his embassy in Holland from January 1615/16, to December 1620. London, 1757.