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

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notable exception to the price decline occurred in the 1740s when the fishermen must have experienced a time of rare and welcome prosperity. We 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. Only in the last decade of the century did fishermen experience some progress in purchasing power relative to bread prices. Prices and Price Relations, Herring and Bread. Copenhagen, 1721-1800. Skilling per skippund bread autumn herring fish/bread ratio spring herring fish/bread -ratio 1721-30 260 568 218 320 123 1731-40 272 554 204 301 110 1741-50 148 638 432 374 253 1751-60 251 530 210 261 104 1761-70 234 554 237 301 129 1771-80 413 570 138 294 71 1781-90 615 672 109 377 61 1791-1800 401 713 177 462 115 Source: Calculations based on tables by Friis & Glamann, A History of Prices. - Capital In the latter part of the sixteenth century, the noblemen withdrew their maritime investments 25 Bauernfeind, Materielle Grundstrukturen.
to concentrate on agriculture and stockraising. 26 As late as 1558, when the Båhus fisheries were growing, the right of the nobility to participate toll-free in any herring fishery throughout the country was promulgated by the estate assembly. 27 Later this freedom became of no importance, and the nobillity began a political battle to restrict the freedom of their peasants to fish and trade; while the King occasionally supported the freedom of the peasants to leave their soil, the towns supported the noblemen. In South Zealand, the towns suffered because of the decline in the fish trade. The towns wanted to reduce peasant sailing in order to keep the transport of goods for themselves. The combined efforts of nobles and towns succeeded by a series of royal commands. 28 The prohibitions meant, however, that the peasants lost interest in keeping a boat altogether; they not only stopped trading but also fishing. Before 1600 they had been effectively bound to the land, and a strictly agricultural system had developed. The late-sixteenth century development of domain manors needed manpower, and could not tolerate a haphazard loss of the workforce for two or three months in the harvesting period. If, or when, the herring returned in great numbers, there was only a small group of professional fishermen to catch it. The custom of recruiting crews from the surrounding agricultural areas had stopped, and economic interest had turned effectively away from the sea. One might expect that the large-scale medieval fishery would have left a lasting heritage in spite of the sixteenth-century contraction. But, on the contrary, southeast Denmark was described in the eighteenth century as a region where the peasant would only use the land in spite of being so near to the sea. Net fishing may have demanded many hands, but only few skilled fishermen. When money deserted the fishing industry, fishing was completely given up, while the professional fishermen concentrated on the few fishing villages in the vicinity of the big 26 Ladewig Petersen, Danmarks historie 2:2, 409. 27 CDD I. 28 F. Martensen-Larsen, Hav, fjord og handel. En studie i handelsveje i Nordjylland i tiden indtil 1850 (Herning, 1986) 151 note 10.
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,
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Page 20 and 21: not taxed. The accounts from 1604 t
Page 22 and 23: fisheries exported little to Hambur
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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