Saga - 1997, Page 58

56
FRIÐRIK G. OLGEIRSSON
fishing as the large number of rowing boats indicates. Most of the fish, how-
ever, was consumed locally and only a small portion of it was sold abroad
because of the absence of saltfish production. The merchants of the biggest
town, Akureyri, did not engage in fishing, nor did they encourage fishermen
to produce saltfish for foreign markets.
Changes in the economy can be discerned around the middle of the nine-
teenth century. The volume of trade grew, new merchant businesses were
established and, importantly, more Icelanders entered the trade, which had
been dominated by Danish merchants. Most of the new businesses were set
up in rural areas, some of which attracted people to settle.
Agriculture was also expanding as new avenues of income opened up for
farmers. Between 1876 and 1896 an estimated half a million live sheep was
exported to England, of which some 158 thousand was exported from the
Eyjafjörður area. With shark Iiver oil fetching high prices in foreign markets
shark hunting off the coast of North Iceland became a profitable activity-
The hunting was carried out on decked sailing vessels and expanded rapidly
after 1850. Both fishermen and farmers participated in the activity, receiving
much higher incomes than in the boat fishery. Shark liver oil and live sheep
were traded for cash, promoting monetary transactions and trade in general
in the domestic economy. The first savings bank in the area was established
in 1872.
The towns of Akureyri and Siglufjörður were the centres of the decked
vessel fishery in the North and soon became the biggest towns in the
Eyjafjörður district. Elsewhere in the area fishing on rowing boats prevailed
and in some places it laid the foundation of fishing villages. For a short peri'
od of time the area enjoyed the biggest population growth in the country.
Saltfish production started in the 1870s spurred by the greatly reduced
price of salt, which dropped by a half at the trading companies in the area in
1876. Many fish curing stations were established in the following years wid1
the merchants of Akureyri, belatedly discovering the profitable production oi
and trade in saltfish, being the most prominent saltfish producers. This devel'
opment further encouraged urbanization.
The introduction of motor boats after 1905 boosted the fishing sector for a
while. As a result, the position of the small fishing villages scattered around
the coast of Eyjafjörður were strengthened, e.g. the town of Ólafsfjörður
which expanded primarily because of the rowing boats, from a population
of 116 in 1905 to 560 in 1930. On the other hand the Eyjafjörður area did not
take an active part in the profitable trawler fishing which was simultaneous-
ly undergoing expansion, because the new technology appears to have been
too expensive for the relatively small businesses in the area.