1921 THE CORUNNA PACKETS 531 to the consumption of French wines was feebly raised by two of the provinces, but led to nothing. 1 The gravity of the danger from Dutch trading with the enemy is best shown by the amount of the trade in contraband. In the autumn of 1689 the British secretary at The Hague reported the optimistic answer of Heinsius to an inquiry about the running of saltpetre : there was a special prohibition besides the great general strictness, and all was well, nevertheless, to oblige the king, Heinsius would give the matter close supervision. 2 It was probably needed. In the previous January the states -general, alarmed by the news that a vessel with gunpowder had lately sailed direct to Rouen, had forbidden any shipment of ammunition without their permission. Yet, so far from stopping the exporting of contraband, this resolution was merely the forerunner of others, at least five of which had failed of their effect in the eighteen months which elapsed before it was made a capital offence. 3 By that time the scandal had led to a violent protest. Amsterdam was always a town where popular rioting was common : on 10/20 June 1690 the people broke out against those who were suspected of selling ammunition to the French. 4 They were put down by the train-bands and there were execu- tions, but the riot was followed by the strong enactment which has been mentioned, and there seems, after this date, to be a check in the flow of regulations against the contraband trade. We have seen already that it would be difficult to prove that the English were more austere in these matters than the Dutch, and it would be a mistake to make any such inference from the English interference with Dutch practices/ It is true that the English seem to have done more of this than the Dutch did to them, but that may be due to a greater aggressiveness and not to a greater provocation. In one or two instances, indeed, it looks very much as if the English tried to stop the importation of Dutch-made goods of which they feared the competition, by using the false pretext that they originated in France. 6 A still 1 C. Indise Raven, Consider alien op de middelen tot voordeel van den staet, 1691, pp. 12-13 ; Consider atien over de tegenwoordige toestand van de negotie, 1692. 2 Aglionby's dispatch, 22 October/1 November 1689 (State Papers, For., Holland, 221). 3 Res. Stat. Gen. 16/26 January, 28 January/7 February, 11/21 March, 18/28 April 1689; 11/21 April, 11/21, 15/25 June 1690. . 4 Kick's dispatch, 11/21 June (State Papers, For., Hollan 221). For a later offence see Res. Stat. Gen. 28 November/7 December 1693 (a shipment of saltpetre from Zeeland by way of Ostend to Dunkirk). 5 For instances see the memorial of Villiers, 31 January 1696 ; and Brande's dispatch on the arrest of fifty-four coal-hookers from Zierikzee by the English, 24 July 1696, both in Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 17677. 6 Privy Council Reg. 13/23 February 1689/90, 10/20 April 1690 ; Amsterdam burgomasters to Hop 25 March/4 April, Hop to burgomasters 15/25 April, 5, 18 May 1690 ; Trumbull to Villiers, 23 October/2 November 1696 (Foreign Entry Book, 69). M m 2
