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

against the Swedish imports with the declaration of 14 March that salted
and dried fish should normally be imported from Norway only. The
privilege had immediate effect, and Gothenburg’s accounts for 1776
show no exports to Denmark; its salted herring went first and foremost to
England, Germany and Russia. But the privilege did not affect the trade
in uncured herring. In 1778 the Swedish authorities assessed Bohuslän’s
export to Denmark and Norway at 30,000 barrels. 352 The trade only
stopped when the Swedish King banned the export of uncured
herring—probably in an effort to secure herring for the curers. 353 The
problems of the Swedish uncured trade were parallel to the former trade
from Aalborg—the small fish merchants stood to gain by it, while the
owners of the salt works lost supplies.
The price series from the Copenhagen fish market (table 3, fig. 1)
shows that herring became cheaper as compared to the price of bread
through the eighteenth century, thus worsening the purchasing power of
fishermen relative to peasants, provided there was no change in the social
organisation of the market (and we have no reason to believe there was).
The spring herring came from the Limfiord, while the autumn herring
most probably came from the Sound and North Zealand fisheries. The
only notable exception to the decline occurred in the 1740s. The
fishermen must then have experienced a time of rare and welcome
prosperity—and we seem to find reminiscences of the good times in the
reports to chancellor Oeder some thirty years later, which generally
lament the present and long for the good old days; they also specifically
record data which seem to corroborate a decline within the past
generation.
The latter half of the eighteenth century saw the most drastic decline
in the fisherman’s lot. This was a time when mercantile shipping
flourished, and lots of new jobs opened up for the able-bodied seaman in
world-wide trades. While no firm documentation is provided, we have no
reason to disbelieve early-nineteenth century statements that the fisheries
provided the sailors for the growing merchant marine and conversely that
the fisheries were a shrinking business by that time. Only in the last
352 O. Hasslöf, Västkustfiskarna (Göteborg, 1949) 170.
353 Lybecker, Forsøg til nogle Betragtninger over Fiskene og Fiskerierne i
Almindelighed, samt til en physisk - historisk - oeconomisk - og politisk Afhandling om
Silde-Fiskerierne i Særdeleshed og fornemmelig det, som drives i Limfiorden, etc.
(København, 1792) 303.
196