Saga


Saga - 1964, Side 60

Saga - 1964, Side 60
52 BJÖRN ÞORSTEINSSON before 1350. By about 1320 the Norwegians seem to have had a surplus of corn because of the increased imports by the Hansa League, especially to Bergen. About the same time the fisheries off Iceland improved, sailings to Iceland increased considerably about 1340, and from there were exported the most and the best products in the form of stockfish and liver-oil. In the years 1340—1347 between 11 and 13 ships were in Iceland each winter, and in 1347 there were 21, plus two that broke up. The increased sailings were accom- panied by more favourable trading terms than before. There was no longer any need to encourage or compel seamen to sail to Iceland, and foreigners (Germans) intensified their drive to the Norwegian dependencies. The Norwegian government had to resign themselves to being more or less excluded by the Hansa League from foreign trade, but they intended to stand up to the League as far as the trade with their dependencies was concerned. In 1348 all seamen without exception were forbidden to sail to Norwegian dependencies without special permission from the King. Iceland was subjected to the same trading laws as Hálogaland and Finnmark, and this state of affairs lasted in theory for a whole century. By now the men of Bergen had by far the most control of trade in Iceland. Although Icelandic bishoprics and one or two chieftains often had ships in operation as previously, such sailings were limited to individuals, so that neither a commercial nor a seafaring class arose in Iceland. Towards the end of the 14th century sailings of the Bergen men to Iceland became very irregular. After the turn of the century the English unexpectedly started sending large fleets of ships to Iceland for fishing and trading. There is nowhere any evidence that Iceland ever opposed the decrees of the King in trading matters apart from the assertion of the country’s right to participate in the sailings between Iceland and Norway. Through the Old Covenant Icelanders acknowledged the King’s control of the Iceland trade in return for his guarantee of a minimum number of sailings to the country. When the Norwegian trading power collapsed about 1400 the Icelanders shook the dust off the Old Covenant and demanded freedom of trade by virtue of fact that the King had not fulfilled his obligations regarding these sailings.
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