The Danish fisheries c.1450-1800. Medieval and early modern ...

The tax list of the crown from the seventeenth century gives an impression of the
periodic nature of the fishery (Figure 10 and 11). At the end of the sixteenth century the
fisheries of both cod and herring were rich but after this time both declined significantly.
During a 10-year period the tax-herring payment was more than halved. Thus, in 1597 18
barrels of salted herring was paid by the island, while in 1607 the payment was only 7 barrels.
In the following years the herring fishery stabilised on an even lower level, until a new peak
in 1615. In the following years no income from the fishery is found in the tax records. In 1627
herring was again paid from the fishery on Bornholm and in the years up to 1644 the fishery
appears to have been stable. The records do not mention herring after this year.
The cod fishery shows a periodicity on a somewhat longer wavelength. The payment
of tax-cod indicates a peak in the fishery at the end of the sixteenth century after which the
fishery declined, and in the years from 1616 to 1627 the cod disappeared from the tax lists.
From the beginning of the 1630s the fishery came to another period of growth, building up to
a new peak in 1655.
The Blekinge fishery
The fishery of Blekinge did not experience the same periodicity as seen on Bornholm
but was characterized by decline and stagnation throughout the first half of the seventeenth
century. The tax lists of the crown from Kristianopel indicate a continued decline in the
extraction of marine resources in the Blekinge fishery during the seventeenth century.
Kristianopel county of the region of Blekinge, which is the easternmost region of ancient
Denmark and present-day southeast Sweden, was the centre of important cod and salmon
fisheries (Figures 12 and 13). In the tax lists of the crown preserved from the year 1604 until
1659 dried cod (‘spidfisk’) was the most important payment of the fisheries. Additionally, tax
was also paid on barrels of salted cod, salmon and eel, while the herring fishery evidently was