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

Greenland a whole world of comparison is opened. The sparse work I
have done in this field shows that the Danish government followed the
same path as other colonial powers in her policy towards Greenland. It
also indicates that the paternalistic, protective policy which the Danes
perpetually emphasized as being special to the treatment of Greenland is
not that unique.
The 1930s and the Quarrel over Faroese Fishing in Greenlandic Waters
This was a highly sensitive political issue. The Danish government had
to find a balance between the Faroese requests on new and expanding
fishing rights on the coast and its concern for the Greenlanders. Very
little has been written about this subject. Karl Nolsøe wrote an
informative article in the periodical Grønland in 1973. Søren Spanner, in
his thesis ‘Færøfiskeriet ved Grønland i 1920-erne’, has analyzed the
first period. In Axel Kjær Sørensen (1983) there are a couple of pages on
the subject. The minutes from the Greenlandic Country Councils, from
the Faroese Lagting, 172 and from the Danish Parliament provide
extensive source materials, not to mention the archives of the said
authorities.
The War Experience
The development in the scope of the fishery is fairly well documented in
contemporary statistics. Thus the cod catch leapt to 12,000 tons in 1942,
growing to 14,000 tons in 1945. Knowledge of the overall economic
balance is lacking. It is thus not known if the fisheries were
self-sustaining or even contributed to the running of society, or if in fact
they were subsidized by the export of cryolite. Down to 1950 Greenland
had a typical planned economy with its own internal price relations
which were fixed out of consideration for society as a whole with little or
no regard for the prosperity of individual businesses. Up to 1938, the
analyses conducted by the Greenland Administration provide much
information. New research in the archives, however, may reveal much
more. But it is clear that the Greenlandic fisheries doubled during the
war, so there was every reason to believe in cod as the basis for the
future.
The Intensified Expansion after 1946
172 See Wåhlin’s paper in this volume.
94