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

Whereas herring is a notoriously volatile resource, cod and haddock
are much more stable. Nevertheless, by the turn of the century, these
fisheries were in serious decline and remained at a low level after 1620.
The decline was not abrupt but in the long term the revenues were halved
between 1562/3 and c1600, and cut to one third again by 1630. This trend
does not correspond with any simple explanation. After all, the Dutch
fisheries in the North Sea were thriving while the West Jutland fisheries
in the same sea were abandoned. The long-term pattern was also
mirrored in the Baltic cod fisheries and in the fact that none of the Danish
herring fisheries ever recovered.
Both ecological and economic factors may explain the long-term
stagnation. The cool and stormy weather prevailing in the period
1500-1850, 332 may conceivably have altered the marine habitat and
caused a long-term decline in inshore fisheries. However, there is no
study to substantiate this possibility, and as the evidence stands there is
no immediate correlation to be found.
Turning to economic explanations, problems of prices, capital and
demand seem relevant. We know that after a peak around 1450, fish
prices fell through the sixteenth century relative to agricultural prices.
Arnved Nedkvitne has published three series of data relating the
purchasing power of dried cod to grain on the Dutch, English and
Norwegian markets, which throw light on the decline. 333 Whereas one
kilogramme of dried fish would have bought fourteen kg of wheat on the
London market around 1400, at the end of the sixteenth century it bought
only six kg. Similar evidence from Holland shows that dried cod lost
almost half its purchasing power relative to rye during the sixteenth
century, and on the Bergen market the purchasing power was more than
halved between 1400 and 1500 and halved again in the next hundred
years. A similar development concerning herring may be calculated from
the German evidence presented by Bauernfeind; between 1450 and 1550
herring lost half of its value relative to rye at the Nuremburg market, and
continued declining in the seventeenth century, except for some very
332 The period is known as the ‘Little Ice Age’ (see Encyclopedia Britannica (1994
CD-ROM edition) for an updated discussion). The worst weather seems to have
occurred in the latter part of the seventeenth century. An international climatological
project will produce new evidence on these phenomena in the next few years
(information from the Danish Meteorological Institute).
333 Arnved Nedkvitne, “Mens Bønderne seilte og Jægterne for.” Nordnorsk og vestnorsk
kystøkonomi 1500-1730 (Oslo, 1988).
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