Chapter III: Under the Tudors

Decay of English fisheries--Influence of Reformation--Rise of
Dutch fisheries--The “Political Lent”--Cecil’s inquiries and
proceedings--Legislation to protect the English fisheries and
encourage the consumption of fish--First complaints against foreign
fishermen on English coast--Hitchcock’s “Pollitique Platt”--His
scheme of a national fishery association to compete with the
Dutch--Proposals of Dr John Dee to tax foreigners fishing on British
coasts--Claim advanced to the sovereignty of the sea--Supposed
limits of British seas--Queen Elizabeth opposes all claims to _Mare
Clausum_--Spanish and Portuguese pretensions to dominion on the
great oceans--Negotiations with Denmark as to trading and fishing at
Iceland and Norway--Queen Elizabeth’s exposition of the principles
of the freedom of the seas--Further legislation to promote the
fisheries--Failure of the policy of fish-days--The striking of the
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