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

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