1921 THE COEUNNA PACKETS 529 burg, Flushing, and Zierikzee. 1 It is enough to say that the federal constitution of the Dutch republic reproduced in miniature the difficulties which prevented the grand alliance from com- bining efficiently in trade war against Louis XIV. The clandestine trade of the Dutch had many methods. 2 First of all, there were quite simple frauds and illegalities. Straightforward smuggling went on all through the war, some- times with armed force. Harbour officers were bribed to open their booms and let in ships at night. Neutral ships carried goods to and fro between the ports of the Dutch and the French. The customs officers were bribed. To stiffen their fidelity, in 1690 the states-general reversed the old arrangement by which all unlawfully imported and exported articles were to be destroyed, and gave them a third share of any goods which they caused to be confiscated. 3 It may be doubted whether this reform did not afford openings for other abuses, for the Dutch showed great ingenuity in evading these laws. There were several systems of collusive capture at sea. A Dutch ship would touch at a French port, when nominally sailing for Bilbao, and would thefn set out with its forbidden cargo. The captain would already carry papers certifying his capture by a privateer, and some of his crew would be detailed to act the part of a prize-crew put in by the captor. The captor would be met, perhaps in some English port, and would quietly collect his ' prizes ', to bring them in and get his allotted share of the proceeds of confiscation. The trans- action was profitable both to the privateersman who got his prizes without risk or trouble, and to the merchant who forfeited his property to an accomplice. There was another way in which it could be made profitable to be captured at sea. A Dutchman, trading under the Swedish or Danish flag and, in the earlier days of the war, not wishing to be impeded by Dutch or British men- of-war in his voyage to France, had only to arrange by post for a Dunkirker to pounce on him as he slipped innocently down the coast, and then he would enter the harbour of Dunkirk under a respectable escort. 4 1 Instances will be found in Res. Stat. Gen. 5/15 October 1689, 29 December/ 8 January 1689/90, 14/24 April-23 July/2 August 1697. (As several of the references to resolutions of the states-general in the foot-notes to this paper are taken not from the originals but from the authenticated copies in diplomatic correspondence or the resolutions of the admiralties, I am unable to distinguish those of the resolutions which are '-secret'.) See also Res. Stat. Zeel. 15/25 September 1696, Res. Admin. Zeel. 23 June/3 July-7/17 August 1697, and the pamphlets cited below. 8 In the present paper I deal only with the sea-borne trade, omitting the overland trade through Germany and the Spanish Netherlands. 3 Resolutions of 8/18 and 13/23 October 1690 (Groot placcaet boek). See also the advocacy of this plan in the pamphlet Middelen tot onfeylbare weeringe van de gepleegde sluykeryen en den verbooden invoer, 1690, and the Nadere consideratie, 1690, which followed it.
- See a memorial to the states of Holland, printed in 1690 with the title Memorie
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