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

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not taxed. The accounts from 1604 to 1613 are detailed and show that the gravitational point of the fisheries was in Øster herred in the southeastern tip of the county. In 1609 Øster herred delivered 76% of the total revenue of 30,474 dried cod. The fishermen were taxed both directly and indirectly through the crown rent of the farm (jordebogsafgiften). The rent of the farm was fixed over a period of years. After 1613 the crown revenue came only from the rent barrels 50000 40000 30000 20000 10000 200 150 100 50 Tax on fishing efforts Kristianopel county 0 1604 1609 1614 1619 1624 1629 1634 1639 1644 1649 1654 year Cod, dried Tax on fishing efforts Kristianopel county 0 1604 1614 1624 1634 1644 1654 1609 1619 1629 year 1639 1649 Salmon Eel, dried and salted Cod, salted of the farm.
The duty on the cod fishery was reduced by 75 %, the salmon fishery almost ceased to exist, and the eel fishery declined as well. The peak of the cod fishery lay in the beginning of the century when 42,364 dried cod was paid to the king in 1608. This year was also a good year in the salmon fishery with a total tax income of 110½ barrels of salmon. The previous year the salmon fishery had been even better with a total revenue of 160 barrels of salmon. Yet in 1609 it came to an end, and the income from the salmon fishery disappeared from the accounts. The cod fishery was also in decline but stabilised in 1613 on a lower lever, and until 1630 the annual duty amounted to approx. 25,000 dried cod. Samples of the accounts from the years 1634, 1639, 1640, 1641, 1644, 1649, 1654 show that the cod fishery declined even further by 1634 to stabilise on a low level with a duty of 10,600 dried cod. The decline in the cod fishery is primarily evident as a decline in the number of dried cod paid to the crown, but the revenue of barrels of salted cod was also reduced from 11 barrels in 1609 to 8 barrels in 1610, and in1613 the payment had become as low as 3 barrels annually. The payment of eel was not equally reduced, yet the income from this fishery also diminished from the beginning of the seventeenth century and stabilised around 1613 at an annual income of 13-15 barrels. The decline of the fisheries in the eighteenth century The decline of the Danish fisheries in the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was evident also to contemporaries. By the last quarter of the eighteenth century Danish writers much deplored the state of the Danish herring fisheries. They could only watch with envy as the herring fisheries of Bohuslän experienced an unprecedented boom., and the recurrent theme was for the Aalborg fishery to once again rise to compete. The other Danish fisheries of the period, however, hardly receive mention and seem to have been ignored by most commentators for their impoverished state. The once thriving fishing town of Skagen reached its low water mark with a much reduced population living in stark poverty. The West Jutland
Page 1 and 2: The Danish fisheries c1450-1800 Med
Page 3 and 4: around the Reef of the Horn for the
Page 5 and 6: known that by the mid-sixteenth cen
Page 7 and 8: caught in large numbers and then to
Page 9 and 10: The Limfjord herring was reported t
Page 11 and 12: around 50,000 barrels, peaking at 6
Page 13 and 14: on the Swedish side were probably l
Page 15 and 16: in order to take up new fisheries,
Page 17: fishery. In early March 1564 they w
Page 22 and 23: fisheries exported little to Hambur
Page 24 and 25: notable exception to the price decl
Page 26 and 27: towns like Copenhagen, Malmø and H
Page 28 and 29: and the North Sea in the west was b
Page 30: conceivably have altered the marine

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

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