Saga - 1964, Page 59

ÞÆTTIR ÚR VERZLUNARSÖGU
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in the north in favour of the fishing ports in the south. Between
about 1340 and 1350 the Norwegians seem to have commenced the
export of corn to Iceland. By that time sailings to Iceland had
increased, the Icelanders ceased to object to the export of stockfish
and did not renew the ship clause in the Old Covenant.
Through the Old Covenant the King obtained control of Ieelandic
trade in return for which he garanteed a minimum number of sailings
to the country.
For some 10 years after 1262 the King probably instructed the
seamen to collect the royal revenue in Iceland and to convey it
without recompense to Norway. After his representatives became
firmly established in Iceland according to the amended laws of 1271
the seamen were probably absolved from the duty of collecting
the taxes, but they still had to be responsible for the carrying of
cargoes.
The Archbishopric in Trondheim had operated trade with Iceland
to a considerable extent before 1262 and had obtained first buying
rights for sulphur and falcons. In 1267 the King tried to bribe
the Archbishop to stop this trade by offering him trading privi-
leges in Finnmark (North Norway), where trade had since the llth
century been subject to royal permission. The Archbishop refused
to relinquish his Icelandic trade and in 1273 the King acknowledged
his right to export meal to Iceland. In the same year the King
granted Icelanders permission to have a share in ocean-going ships -—
those that sailed to Iceland, of course. At this time the Bishop of
Skálholt had won a great victory in his disputes with laymen for
the control of the Church’s incomes. The Skálholt see then acquired
an ocean-going vessel, and it may be that Icelandic chieftains also
bought shares in such ships. The ship belonging to the Bishopric
was confined to harbour in Norway after the defeat of the Bishop
in another dispute with laymen over the revenues of the Church in
1283. By this time it would appear that the King had obtained
first buying rights for sulphur and falcons in Iceland. It is not
known how the dispute over the Skálholt ship ended, but between
1330 and 1340 records state that the Bishopric of Hólar owned shares
in most of the ships sailing to Iceland, and about 1338 the Bishops
of Bergen and Skálholt owned an Icelandic trading ship in partner-
ship. It does not seem as if the King had placed any restrictions on
sailings of subjects of the Norwegian crown to Iceland after 1284
until 1348, though in 1302 foreigners were forbidden to sail to the
Norwegian dependencies „or to set up a company to trade with
Iceland." Records state that ships sailed from various ports in
Norway to Iceland during the period 1262—1348 — from Bergen,
Hafnir (probably Harðastaðahöfn in Hálogaland), Oslo (the King’s
ships probably sailed from there), ögvaldsnes and Trondheim (the
Archbishop’s ships sailed from there). During the latter part of
Ihe 14th century seamen were tried for infringing the Norwegian
trading laws by sailing to Iceland, but no such case is mentioned