Saga - 1964, Page 60

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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.