[1^] THE FISHERIES OF SWEDEN. 377 



Chants fromPrussia and Livonia. All the important sea towns belong- 

 ing- to the Hanseatic League, from Kampen and Harderwyk, on the 

 Zuyder Zee, as far as Eeval, on the present Baltic coast of Eussia had 

 lots on the Skane coast, where they erected booths and stores' At 

 a certain season of the year -the Hanse Towns sent prefects to the coast 

 ot fekane to defend their old rights and juivileges. The Danish kin-s 

 appointed a person both at Skanor and Falsterbo to see to it that thcTir 

 rights were not infringed upon. The Hanse prefects, however, stood 

 their ground, and within the districts controlled by them no foreio-ner 

 was allowed. No German was to salt herring for the King, Danes or 

 other foreigners ; nor were the Hanse men to let their herring be salted 

 by foreigners. According to their privileges they were to have full 

 liberty to carry on the fisheries, to have their own workmen, &c. Sar- 

 torius states that the Hanse merchants even seem to have prevented 

 foreigners from obtaining good barrels, with the view to limit their sale 

 of fish. At that period the Hanse Towns controlled nearly the entire 

 trade of the north of Europe, and it was very difficult for the inhabit- 

 ants of Scandinavia to compete with them. It was forbidden to salt 

 herring on board vessels, in order to prevent smuggling. The duties 

 paid to the Danish Crown, however, were ludicrously low. All heriiuo- 

 exported from Skane b3' way of the Sound were free of duty. Beside^ 

 the duties, the King had the right of the so-called "royal purchase-" 

 that 18, every fisherman, no matter whether he fished on his own ae- 

 count or for others, must sell to the Crown 240 herring at half the 

 ru ing price. For curing these fish the Danish Crown maintained large 

 sal -houses at Skanor, Falsterbo, Dragor, and on the inland of Moen 

 and from the accounts kept at these establishments we get our data 

 relative to the yield of the herring fisheries. According to Allen there 

 were in 1518 salted in the royal salt-house at Dragor 180 tunnor \= 297 

 hectohtersj of herring. F. Trebban, the royal superintendent at Fal- 

 sterbo, in his report to King Christian HI for the year 1537, states that 

 at lalsterbo there were salted 96,000 tunnor, or barrels [= 158 400 hec 

 toliters], of herring, and estimates the entire number of herrino- cau-ht 

 111 the Danish Monarchy during that year at 360,000 tunnor [=591 000 

 hectoliters]. According to the report of the Lubeck prefect at Fal- 

 sterbo, the number of persons engaged in the Skanor and Falsterbo her 



"^t^" ^'"'"^' '^' ^''^ ^■'"'' ^^" '^^ ^^^8" «f K">§- Frederick I 

 [1523-1033J was 3., 500, and the number of boats employed by them, 



7,olo The average price of one tunna of herring [= 1.65 hectoliters! 

 was 2 tiorins. The above-mentioned quantity of herring would there- 

 fore represent a value of 720,000 florins, or 1,440,000 ounces of silver 

 an enormous sum, says Allen, if we take into consideration that silver 

 was worth more than it is nowadays. According to Hallenberg, a bar- 

 rel of Skane herring in 1539 cost 10 Danish marks [$3.21J. The value 

 of the entire Danish herring-fisheries calculated on this basis would 

 have amounted to 4,320,000 crowns [§1,157,760]. If we consider that 



