THE RISE OF THE HERRING FISHERIES 131 



table gives the total quantity and value of the Norwegian fishery 

 in the years mentioned. 



Herring Fisheries 



It is evident that since 1885 the Norwegian fisheries for herring 

 have increased considerably in importance. Taking a ton as being 

 equivalent to 127 hectolitres, the quantity landed in 1911 would be 

 4,404,400 cwt., valued at £580,570, a very low value compared with 

 Scottish or English herrings. 



Sweden is the chief market for Norwegian salted herring, though 

 some are sent to Germany. 



Norway now stands third on the list of herring importers into 

 Germany. 



Denmark 



The earliest " great " herring fishery of which we have historical 

 record was that carried on from Scania, in the Baltic.^ This fishery 

 was commercially as important as that of the Dutch a few centuries 

 later, or as that of Scotland at the present day. Scania, with its 

 two important fishing villages, Skanor and Falsterbo, though now 

 situated in the extreme south-west of Sweden, belonged to Denmark 

 until the seventeenth century. From this province Catholic 

 Eiurope derived its supply of herring for over three centuries. 



The fishery lasted from Our Lady's Nativity (8th September) to 

 All Saints Day (ist November). It is uncertain when this fishery 

 first became of more than local importance. The historian Saxo 

 refers to it as a considerable fishery in 11 80, but it was probably 

 not until the rise of the Hanseatic League that this herring trade 

 acquired a European reputation. The fishermen of Liibeck took 

 part in the fishery as early as 1201, since in that year " when they 

 lay with their vessels at Skanor, at the herring fishing," they were 



1 See " Our Sea Fisheries," by Dr. T. Wemyss Fulton, Fish Trades Gazette, 

 nth November, 1893; and Fischer, f.cj., " Geschichte des Teutschen Handels " 

 (Hannover, 1793. 4 vols.), Vol. I, p. 690. 



