Marine Ventures - Archaeological Perspectives on Human-Sea Relations - Hein B. Bjerck
17. Fishing as a New Commercial Profession and the Dawn of New Habitation along the Norwegian Coast
Marine Ventures - Archaeological Perspectives on Human-Sea Relations - Hein B. Bjerck
Helge Sørheim
University of Stavanger
Description
The twelfth century was an important phase for the development of trade in the Middle Ages and the expansion of Northern European long-distance trade reached Norway. Large-scale trade increased strongly and new types of goods appeared. The most important Norwegian export product was “stockfish”, dried cod that was exported to Europe via Bergen. Fishing became a commercial profession. The cod fisheries of Lofoten are well known, but there were also large fisheries on the coast of Sunnmøre further south. This was the basis for the emergence of the small medieval town and trade centre Borgund. The cod fisheries in the Borgundfjord can be equated in importance to the Lofoten fisheries in the 16–17th centuries and, as the Borgund fiord cod was caught and dried much closer to Bergen and the European marked, it must be considered just as important as the Lofoten cod from the first days of the commercial cod fisheries. As fishing became a profession, it led to settlements at the outmost coast, as near as possible to the fishing grounds, where it had not previously been possible to survive from farming and raising cattle. When fishing and fish trade became professionalised, the settlements and way of life along coastal Norway experienced a dramatic new dawn.