The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

The area which was dominated to the greatest extent by permanent
fishing villages was Finnmark. Even if the written sources from the
medieval period are meagre, it is possible to see how the boundary of the
Norwegian population expanded north of the grain cultivation limit in
the period after 1200. The church in Tromsø, which was founded as the
northernmost in Norway around 1250, was built during the reign of
Håkon Håkonson who interestingly enough is the same king who signed
the first treaty with Lübeck in 1250. After 1250 there seems to have been
a very fast settlement development in the north, as a church in Vardø is
referred to as early as 1307. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there
is both written and archaeological evidence confirming the existence of
several fishing villages in Finnmark.
In the sixteenth century documentary sources give more extensive
information about the character and the size of the fishing villages. The
taxation lists of 1520 and 1567 are the first to register the settlements
systematically, and from 1610 there are annual lists. In Finnmark the
total population of the fishing villages has been estimated at between
2,000 and 2,500 persons in 1520—in the 1590s it reached its peak with a
population of about 3,000. 275 The reduction in the stockfish price in the
sixteenth century was therefore not large enough to stop the positive
settlement development in the coastal districts. In the Lofoten area, as
well as in many other combined farming and fishing areas, the
population continued to increase up to the 1620s, while a negative
tendency at that time had emerged in the more specialized fishing areas.
There were many immigrants from South Norway and also from
abroad to the fishery districts in the sixteenth century. The surnames of
the fishermen tell us that there were Danes (especially from Jylland),
Swedes, Germans, Scots, Dutchmen and many from the Faroes and
Shetland. It follows that the fishing villages were cosmopolitan in
character. Some fishermen stayed only for a short period, but many
stayed for good. The typical fisherman of the north had a wife and
children and had settled permanently. Either he had his own fishing boat,
or he was a crew member on a boat owned by the neighbour. The small
fishing boats which were used all along the coast, were manned by 4-6
men. The fisherman and his wife would normally also be the owners of
one or two cows and some sheep and goats for the supply of milk
products and meat, and hides and wool as raw materials for clothes. In
275 Nielssen 1994: 27.
153