on an enemy warship that was sunk, and one third of the value of a captured enemy merchant ship. If a captured enemy warship were repairable at reasonable cost and suitable to add to the English fleet, the Crown might but bought it. However, until 1708, the purchase price was fixed by the Admiralty, whose agents were suspected of valuing them cheaply or inflating the cost of repairs. The 1643 ordinance also introduced two new measures: that part of the money not allocated to the ship's crew would go to the sick and wounded, and that English ships recaptured from an enemy were to be returned to their owner on payment of one-eighth of their value to the ship recapturing them. A further ordinance of 1650 applied these prize money rules to the capture of pirate ships. The provisions of 1643, 1649 and 1650 on the distribution of prize money were repeated after the Restoration in an act of 1661, which also expressly allowed the custom of pillage, and allowed the Lord Admiral discretion over any money or goods not allocated to the crews. The right of disposing of captured prizes and pre-emption in acquiring their goods was also retained by the Lord Admiral. Anglo-Dutch Wars Even before the Second Anglo-Dutch War formally began, two steps were taken by the English government that were liable to promote hostility between England and the Netherlands. Firstly, in 1663, the Navigation Act, which aimed to restrict Dutch maritime trade, authorised the capture of English or foreign vessels trading in breach of that act as prizes, and allowed Vice-Admiralty courts in the English colonies to adjudicate their value, and to award one-third of this value to the captor, one third to the colonial governor and one third to the Crown. These overseas Vice-Admiralty courts were, from 1692, also able to deal with wartime prizes. Secondly, an Order in Council of 1644 increased the prize money due to the seamen of English ships that took prizes to 10 shillings for each ton comprised in their tonnage, and gun money of at least 10 pounds a gun for any warship sunk or burned. Although neither Charles II nor his brother James, Lord High Admiral since 1660, had been ungenerous to those Royal Navy captains and flag officers that captured enemy ships, giving them a fair allocation of the value of their prizes, the failure to set