The Fishy History of Dutch Herring - the low countries https://www.the-low-countries.

com/article/the-fishy-history-of-dutch-herring

© Unsplash / Fengyou Wan

© Unsplash / Fengyou Wan

podcast History of the Netherlands

HISTORY

#16 - The Fishy History of Dutch Herring

By Republic of Amsterdam Radio

06/05/2022

 14 min reading time

Eating herring is a Dutch tradition. For centuries, fishing for and

exporting salted herring was one of the cornerstones of the Dutch
economy. This silvery, slimy fish is part of the Dutch national identity,
thanks to a humble herring fisherman.

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In the latter half of the 14th century, a series of technological developments

as well as ripe social and economic conditions saw the foundations being laid
for the future Dutch takeover of the northern European herring industry. Up
until then, the herring trade had been dominated by the Danes, Swedes and
the Hanseatic towns of northern Germany and the Baltic Sea, with Dutch
and other European consumers happily importing salted herring from those
places.

Within two hundred years this situation would be completely reversed; the
fishing and exporting of salted herring would be one of the cornerstones of
the Dutch economy and Dutch cured herring would come to reach dinner
tables all across Europe. This remarkable reversal of fortunes was so integral
to the emergence of Dutch national identity, that it required its own position
within the narrative of the emerging Dutch state.

Eating herring in the traditional Dutch way, in the past and today
© National Archives / Wikipedia

From the 17th century onwards a myth was perpetuated which credited it all
to a man called Willem Beukelszoon of Biervliet. He was a humble herring

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to a man called Willem Beukelszoon of Biervliet. He was a humble herring

fisherman who, at some point in the 14th century apparently discovered the
process of gibbing, which made this whole turn around possible. Although
this legend has been debunked by modern historians, its perpetuation
demonstrates the importance which the so-called “royal herring” enjoyed in
the creation of a Dutch national identity.

So in this episode of the History of the Netherlands, we are once again going
to depart from the power games of the nobility, and the wranglings of urban
elite and worker’s guilds, and focus on something even more slippery, the
herring.

Herring stall

Herring stall in The Hague

The legend of Willem Beukelszoon

According to the popular story, at some point in the latter half of the 14th
century Mr Beukelszoon, for some reason or other, began to go about things
differently to other fishermen or fish curers. He is credited with discovering
something called kaken, or gibbing: a method of gutting and deboning
herring that left parts of its stomach and another of its internal organs, the
pyloric caecae, intact. Removing the guts and bones took away the bits that
would begin to rot first, whilst the remaining pyloric caecae would continue
to emit an enzyme called trypsin. The herring would then be thrown into
brine and basically, pickle in its own juices.

Willem Beuckel lithograph 1821

Willem Beukelszoon, as depicted in a lithograph made from his depiction in a

church window in Biervliet. By Hilmar Johannes Backer.
© Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

So important was Willem Beukelszoon’s discovery of gibbing, that in addition

to appearing in a stained-glass window of a church and having his own
statue in Biervliet, and as well as featuring in several chronicles of Dutch
history, in 2005 Willem Beukelszoon was named by a Dutch television show

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history, in 2005 Willem Beukelszoon was named by a Dutch television show

as the 157th greatest Netherlander of all time. That is a remarkable
achievement.

It becomes even more remarkable when we look even deeper into who he
was and what he is supposed to have ‘discovered’. Because, quite frankly,
there is no firm record of when exactly this particular William Beukelszoon
lived or what exactly he did. I say ‘particular’, because there are numerous
Willems and other Beukelszoons who lived in the 14th century in Zeeland.
The extent to which any of them were involved with fishing, gibbing, salting,
packing or otherwise is unclear.

Secondly, and more importantly, there is absolutely no way that this method
of gibbing was invented in the Netherlands, or even by a Dutchman. If
anyone tells you that Willem Beukelszoon invented this method, then they
are merely fibbing about gibbing. What this means, astoundingly, is that this
all-important process of gibbing, which to this day provides us with one of
the most traditional and Dutch of all traditional Dutch foods, the Hollandse
Nieuwe, or pickled herring - something so Dutch that it is often proudly
served on a plate with a little Dutch flag skewered into it - almost certainly
originated in today’s Sweden. So, yea… Dutch pickled herring - bet you didn’t
know that wasn’t Dutch!

Herring

The most traditional and Dutch of all traditional Dutch foods, the Hollandse
Nieuwe, or pickled herring.

From river fishing

Humans have been fishing since the Paleolithic era, but these early attempts
at fishing were mostly focused on the easiest to catch fish in the easiest to
reach areas. Most fishing occurred in riverways, where people tended to
settle, or in shallow coastal waters, which were easy enough to exploit from
small open boats.

As we have seen in a previous episode, from around the year 1100, people in
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As we have seen in a previous episode, from around the year 1100, people in
the Low Countries began their first systematic attempts at changing the
environment they were living in, by going beyond building terps, to
constructing small dikes, then large dikes, dams, sluices and other methods
to control flooding and manage the water level. This meant that by the
Middle Ages the population of river fish was dwindling, due to the intense
growth of the human population in urban and regional areas of the lowlands
and the pollution they created in the large waterways. Even more
problematic was that the flood control methods, those dams, dikes and
sluices, had begun to mess with the natural flow of those waters and impact
the life cycles of the freshwater fish that lived in them.

By this time, as we know, this was a Christian realm. According to the

traditions that had developed, people were prohibited from eating meat on
certain days of the week, as well as during other holy periods such as lent,
good Friday, advent and so on. According to the Christian tradition, fish did
not count as meat, so medieval pescatarians rejoiced and on the 130 days a
year when meat was prohibited, fish was permitted to be consumed.

The big problem with fish was that

it was not cheap

The big problem with fish, however, was that it was not cheap. A huge
amount of effort had to go into getting it out of the water and into a market
without it going off. Grains were much cheaper in general. Even in times of
grain shortage, when the price of bread skyrocketed, fish was still, with a few
exceptions, more expensive. For this reason, whatever fishing was done was
first on simply a subsistence level, where the fishermen themselves would
eat what they caught or use it to feed their family, or perhaps the lord they
served or their local abbey or church.

It is estimated that fish would make up somewhere between 3-5% of the

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It is estimated that fish would make up somewhere between 3-5% of the

calories people would consume but cost 10-20% of their food budget, which
is a terrible ratio. For this reason, it was often seen as a rich person’s food,
and this is testified to in many old paintings, in which table displays exhibit
lavish banquets with a fish in the centre.

1942 311 Fish Still Life

Fish, painting by Edouard Manet (1832-1883), 1864

© Art Institute of Chicago

To sea fishing
Sea fishing began in the lowlands sometime just after the turn of the first
millennium. Sea fish like cod, plaice, haddock and herring, of course, became
of ever greater importance. In Flanders, there is evidence of it from about
the 11th century, and in Holland and Zeeland from the 13th century. Small-
scale Dutch fishing operations would have fished off the Dutch and English
coasts.

Herring was best caught in these waters in the winter months when the fish
were spawning and so at their fattiest. This was also when the supply of
other forms of fresh meat was dwindling. Not yet having access to gibbing
knowledge, the majority of fish caught would be sold at markets either fresh
or lightly salted and semi-preserved, a product called korfharing. Lowlander
fishermen very often landed off the coast of England, selling their catch
straight to curers there.

Lowlander fishermen very often

landed off the coast of England,
selling their catch straight to curers
there

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After not long, however, the increase of sea fishing off the lowland coast and
English coast was not providing sufficient for the growing demands of a
rapidly urbanising society in Flanders and then also in Holland, Brabant,
Zeeland and Guelders. Over time Flemish and Dutch fishermen pushed into
deeper and deeper waters. They learned that as they went further away, and
north up the English and Scottish coasts, they were then able to follow
massive herring shoals south again.

The fish would move south as they spawned, so if the fishermen timed it
correctly, they would be able to catch bigger and fattier fish. The distances
they were travelling in pursuit of herring, however, were making it more
difficult to land in England or bring a fresh catch back to the Low Countries.

This was compounded by other problems that arose in the late 13th and early
14th centuries. Piracy was one of them. But significantly so too was the strife
that erupted between England and France, and Flanders, and in which the
rest of the Low Countries became embroiled, with the onset of the Hundred
Years War in the 1330s.

Dutch and Flemish fishermen, wanting to head ever further out into
northern waters, could not rely on being able to make land as frequently as
the ports of England were sometimes closed to them. In addition to this they
were chasing fatter fish into further, deeper waters. They needed to figure
out a way to keep their fish good and to stay at sea longer.

Gibbing in Scania and the Hanseatic League

All evidence suggests that gibbing was already happening in other parts of
northern Europe. It was certainly happening in a place called Scania, the
southern part of what is today Sweden, but back then was part of Denmark.
There, on a daily basis, thousands of small, open boats, with perhaps 5-6 men
aboard, would set off to catch herring in the strait between today’s Denmark
and Sweden, a body of water known as the Sound. Here, as historian Richard
Unger puts it, herring stocks could be so thick in number that fishermen had

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Unger puts it, herring stocks could be so thick in number that fishermen had
trouble moving their rudders in the dense water.

The literal boatloads caught would be taken to the Skanör Peninsula, where
the fish would be gibbed. This process involved the fish being picked up in
one hand, while the other knife-wielding hand would stick into a precise
location in the gills, push down with their thumb on the underside, and twist
the knife in such a way that, when it was pulled from the fish, the insides
would become outsides. It would then be tossed in a barrel of salted water
and fish blood.

What remained, after this process was finished, was called tonharing, a
product which could last for up to one year. Once packed, barrels of this
tonharing could then be submitted to the trade routes of the Hanseatic
League, and make their way off to markets around Europe.

Hansas

The herring trade in northern Europe, 14th century. Map by David Cenzer

Being so well preserved meant it could travel far distances, going from
merchant to merchant, before ending up as food for people who had never
heard of Scania. The Low Countries, and particularly Flanders, were one of
the most important destinations along the way. Flanders, as we know, was
the major market of the Low Countries and one of Europe’s biggest hubs of
international trade; it was the place where merchants from the northern
Hanseatic League met merchants from the Lowlands, England, France, Italy,
Spain and elsewhere. For this reason, the Hanseatic League established a
kontor - a trading outpost - in Bruges, with merchants and businessmen
based there to protect its interests, not least of which was its import of
tonharing.

Flemish and Dutch fishermen, besides scouring their local coast, were also
working in and around Scania. In his article “The Netherlands Herring
Fishery in the Late Middle Ages”, upon which we are relying heavily for this
episode, Unger notes how at one point, around 1350, Amsterdam, Enkhuizen,
Brielle and eight other towns from the Low Countries had been given the

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right to participate in herring fishing in Scania, where they were allowed to

bring the fish to shore to be cured. Some or many of them would certainly
have witnessed the gibbing process on Skanör peninsula.

Dutch kaakharing versus Hanseatic tonharing

The Dutch word for the gibbing process is kaken, and herring produced in
the Low Countries was known as kaakharing. Joining the Danes from Scania
in producing very well preserved herring meant that Dutch and Flemish
herring began to be seen more on the continent. By the 1330s, Flemish
merchants were selling herring in France, what would become known as
caque-haring, directly derived from the Dutch kaakharing.

The increase in Dutch kaakharing in Flemish markets provided more

problems to the platter of perpetual pressure from which the prince and
patricians in Flanders had to partake. Hansa merchants in Flemish cities
fought stiffly to protect their imported tonharing from Scania against
incursions by the local Dutch equivalent kaakharing. Their angst only
increased due to how vulnerable the Scania herring industry could be to
massive, unpredictable interruptions. A poor season, bad weather, war, or
other major issues in the North might open the door for Dutch herring in
Dutch markets. With the rise of kaakharing, tensions between the Hanseatic
League and fishing towns and villages in the Low Countries began to surface.

Hansa merchants in Flemish cities

fought to protect their imported
tonharing from Scania against
incursions by the local Dutch
equivalent kaakharing

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This was a delicate situation which had to be balanced carefully by the count
of Flanders. The conflict between Scania herring and Dutch herring had
direct implications on a culturally important consumer good because for 130
days of the year those who could afford it would eat fish. Domestic fishing
loads were essential to the availability of fresh fish to the local market. If
Dutch herring was cured it was more likely to make its way to foreign
markets, and so there would not be enough supply to just replace the local
demand for fresh fish. As kaakharing had more value in more markets,
greater portions of a catch would be committed to the preservation station.

In 1396 an edict was passed by the Flemish count which banned the landing
of any type of preserved herring in Flanders. This derived firstly from
protestations by merchants in Bruges with interests in the protection of
Hanseatic trade of tonharing, and secondly by the need to protect the supply
of fresh fish to local markets. But this ban was quickly ended after it became
clear that merchants in Flanders would simply travel to Zeeland where the
ban did not apply in order to buy preserved herring there instead. The new
rules, however, only allowed fishermen in the town of Biervliet to sell cured
herring for a certain four week period, in specially marked barrels, which
were not allowed to be sold in Flanders, but which were only for export. This
was a concession to the anxious Hansa merchants.

SK A 3246

The Fishwife, Adriaen van Ostade, 1672

© Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Gibbing on board ships

Whether it was due to overfishing, or a climatic change in weather
conditions between the 1390s and 1420s Scania supplies of herring began to
dwindle. There would even be years of catastrophe when herring simply
wouldn’t show up to the party. That circumstance is a contender for the
saddest party ever, a Danish fisherman alone on his boat in the early 1400s,
looking at an empty sea where he had expected to see literally millions of
fishy friends. When tonharing couldn’t be supplied by Hansa merchants, this

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fishy friends. When tonharing couldn’t be supplied by Hansa merchants, this

created an opportunity for the Dutch fishermen to fill that gap.

It was at this point that the Dutch herring industry would begin its
astronomical rise. As we’ve seen, gibbing was nothing new. They’d been
exposed to it and they’d been using it already for years. What was truly
revolutionary at this moment was the way they solved the problem of
needing to return to port daily in order to bring the herring in fresh. And the
solution for it was magnificent and simple. Dutch and Flemish fishermen
began to conduct the process of gibbing on their ships, rather than take their
loads to be cured on land. It was this innovation, rather than the mythical act
of Beukelszoon, which changed the game.

SK C 524

The Dutch Herring Fleet, Pieter Vogelaer, 1670-1700

© Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Bringing this process on board their ships meant that now Dutch fishermen
could set sail and take their ships north along the Scottish coast and beyond,
heading into deeper, more herring-laden waters, where they could remain
until their holds were full of pickled herring. Gibbing on board meant being
able to stay at sea for much longer, allowing Dutch and Flemish fishermen to
become more intimate with the happenings of herring, furthering their
understanding of things like the seasons and regions that they were the
fattest and best for commercial purposes.

Herring 3

More herring could be found north in the Atlantic. Map by David Cenzer.

More innovations
This surge towards herring also opened the door for other innovations, as
such trends tend to do. At some point in the 1300s, somebody created a type
of net called a vleet. These were wide and sprawling, about 30m long and 15m
wide, and extremely effective in catching massive hauls of herring. They
would be tied together, to make even bigger nets and to make them operable

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would be tied together, to make even bigger nets and to make them operable
for the fishermen on board. The first open Dutch fishing boats to use the
vleet would carry up to forty of them at once. Soon though, ships across the
Lowlands would be dragging more than 75 of them, tied together, scooping
up hundreds of thousands of herring at once.

RP P 1888 A 12505

Herring near a fishing net, Albert Flamen, 1664

© Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Shipbuilding was another area that tied in with this fishy fortune. For a long
time already, it had been one of the main industries in Holland, Zeeland and
Friesland, and as necessity drives development, so did Dutch ships develop
to cater to the growth of the herring industry. The cog and corver were
styles of ships with large hulls, and so could carry more stuff in them. Cogs
had originated in the Low Countries by the 10th century and by the 14th
century were widely used in Northern Europe, especially amongst the
Hanseatic trade networks. For Dutch fishermen, they became perfect in
combination with the large vleet nets, and soon became equally central to
the whole industry.

Over the latter half of the 14th century Dutch shipbuilders began modifying
these ships to cater to the needs of herring fishermen. Dragging such
massive nets meant needing specialised ships to balance out the immense
force. The boats became shaped to have bigger holds, and the capacity to
carry and haul the vleet nets. By the beginning of the 15th century, this
evolved into the haringbuis, or herring buss, which was essentially a floating
herring factory. Up to 30 sailors would work on each bus, fishing, gibbing
and packing herring for up to eight weeks at a time before returning to port.

RP P OB 6707

Herring busses, Robert de Baudous (possibly), after Jan Porcellis, 1677-1702

© Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The superiority of the herring buss meant that Dutch fishermen could travel
into deeper waters where herring stocks were more reliable and less subject

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into deeper waters where herring stocks were more reliable and less subject
to the vagaries of shallower, coastal waters. More reliable herring meant
higher yields, which could be preserved for longer, and could be sold in more
distant markets. This led to more profits, which could be used to invest in
more busses, or perhaps to take part in other commercial activities during
the herring off-season, such as the grain trade from the Baltic or the import
of the salt necessary to preserve the fish. By the end of the 15th century, the
Dutch would be the ones selling cured herring to the Hansa towns, a 180
degree turn around in fortune.

Conclusions
Herring provided a product that had demand in markets all around Europe.
Innovations in the Low Countries in things like making nets, on-board
gibbing and ship-building allowed the Dutch to take over a whole industry,
one which relied on international trade cooperation and large initial
investments, which needed many highly skilled and many unskilled workers
cooperating, which required the import of the necessary raw materials to
turn an unfinished product into a marketable one, which required merchants
to then sell it throughout the continent and book-keepers and accountants
to make sure that everybody received their share of the profit. This was
setting up the foundations for what would later become a transcontinental
trade system which did much the same, albeit on a grander scale.

Glasinlood

Willems Beukelszoon on a stained-glass window in the church of Biervliet

As for William Beukelszoon, whoever he was and whatever he did, his name
belongs now to history, even if only as the personification of this period of
technological innovation. Although we’ll never know what role he played, if
any, in the process of moving gibbing onto ships, it is his name which has
filtered down through the ages as the one which is so remembered. In the
1660s, in the period just after the successful Dutch revolt against Spain, a
stained-glass window was created in Biervliet in honour of Willem
Beukelszoon, and his supposed invention of kaaken. In it he wears orange,

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blue and white, the colours of the Dutch national flag whilst in one hand he
holds a knife and in the other a herring.

Enkhuizen

Coat of arms of Enkhuizen

© Flickr / Wouter Bregman

By the 1600s the Dutch herring industry would be so entrenched in the new
national identity, that some of its biggest towns, like Enkhuizen would bear
crowned herrings on their city coat of arms and you can still see many
buildings in cities across the Netherlands which feature herrings in their
architecture. The herring industry would even infiltrate the language, with
the Dutch equivalent of the English expression “packed (in) like sardines”
translating to “like herring in a barrel”.

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HERRING WILLEM BEUKELSZOON

Republic of Amsterdam Radio

Republic of Amsterdam Radio is a group of history nerds with a
passion for telling stories, based in Amsterdam.
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