about 50,000 people employed in fishing along
the English coast; and their industry and enterprise gave employment to
about 150,000 more, "by sea and land, to make provision, to dress and
transport the fish they take, and return commodities; whereby they are
enabled yearly to build 1000 ships and vessels." The prosperity of
Amsterdam was then so great that it was said that Amsterdam was
"founded on herring-bones." Tobias Gentleman published in 1614 his
treatise on 'England's Way to win Wealth, and to employ Ships and
Marines,'[16] in which he urged the English people to vie with the
Dutch in fishing the seas, and thereby to give abundant employment, as
well as abundant food, to the poorer people of the country.

"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 Yarmo