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

general the sixteenth century seems to have been a favourable period for
the fishermen and their families, in spite of the reduction in the stockfish
price during the period.
There are also many indications that the volume of the fishery and the
fish trade increased towards the end of the sixteenth century. The class of
national merchants was growing, and their intermediate role between the
fishery districts and Bergen increased again. 276 In the second part of the
sixteenth century larger ships than before, owned by Norwegian
merchants, took over much of the transport between Finnmark and
Bergen.
Growth and Depression, 1600-1750
The Traditional Stockfish Production
In the seventeenth century there are many signs of depression in the
coastal settlements. One of the most manifest is the crisis which occurred
in the late 1620s. The crisis was caused by the general rise in the prices of
cereals during the Thirty Years War and the temporary cessation in the
trade connection between Bergen and the continent due to the
involvement of the Danish-Norwegian king in the war. One can detect a
dramatic reduction of the population in almost all the fishing
villages—many of them were laid waste during these years. In the
combined farming-fishing districts the demographic consequences were
not so far-reaching, but a state of economic depression is also evident.
During the 1630s conditions were more normal, with two exceptions:
The stockfish price as compared with cereals permanently stayed at a
lower level than before, and the position of the fishing villages was
reduced for good. In Finnmark, for instance, a large part of the
Norwegian settlement moved from fishing villages to the fiords and
more emphasis was put on animal husbandry than before. Others gave up
fishing and moved to the south.
While the blame for the negative population growth in the fishing
villages traditionally has been attributed to the effect of the local trade
monopolies, historians today seem to agree that the causes of the
depression were mainly of an international character, partly due to the
lowered demand for stockfish after the Reformation and partly due to
276 Nilsen 1966.
154