Stavanger and the Baltic in the 18th c.:Fish for grain?

Arne SolliAHKR, University of Bergen, Norway

STR conferenceLeeuwarden 25.10.2013

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18th c.? Why not 19th century!Øresund passages to Stavanger 1630-1857

Stavanger? Why not Bergen!Passages to Bergen and Stavanger compared

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Stavanger – The Oil Capital!

Ersland&Solli (2012):From the beginning until 1815. History of StavangerVol. 1

Stavanger 1723

What did Norway import from Baltic Sea?

• Short historiography:• Fritz Rørig&Norvik (1944): Grain. • Karlsen&Brynhildsrud (1975): Grain• Ingvild Øye (1990):

– «ber, mell, molt»– Hops, salt– Wax, hemp, flax, tar, pitch (bek)

• Primary focus– Medieval/late medieval– Hanse (Rostock, Lübeck)

• STR example Rostock.• Rostock-Norway 1730-1799

– 40% of all passages from Rostock went to Norway

– 21% of all passages from Rostock went to Bergen in Norway

• Rostock main export products– Rye, malt, barley and peas– >60% passages food products

• What about Stavanger?• Grain too?

Grain: Norway and Stavanger region• John Herstad (2000), I helstatens

grep - kornmonopolet 1735-88

• East Norway: – Grain monopoly, Danish grain

• West/North Norway: – Free import– Baltic Sea, Russia, England

• What about Stavanger?

Grain m

onopolyWest+North: No monpoly

Stavanger region: Barely grain import at all

• 1740s: Stavanger imported 0,1 barrels grain, Bergen 1,2 barrels pro person pro year

STR: Stavanger & Baltic 18th c.:Main dest./depart ports

FROMstd AntallAvstd

Kjøbenhavn 214

Gdansk 151

Køge 47

Kaliningrad 42

Riga 31

Baltijsk (Pillau) 8

Klaipeda (Memel)

5

STR: What did Stavanger import?

1735 1740 1745 1750 1755 1760 1765 1770 1775 1780 1785 17900.00

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90.00

Number of passages Grain and Flax+HempFlax and Hemp Grain (Rye, Wheat, Barley, Malt)

Num

ber o

f Car

goes

What was Flax & Hemp i STR?3 Baands hørBlaarFin hørHampHamp blaarØlands flaksOrd. hørrPreussisk hørPrydsk hørRakitsk hørRossitsk hørHamp med vidre hør og blaar

Læst

Lispund

Pund

Skippund

Steen

Flax & Hemp in STR Measures of Flax &Hemp in STR

Flax & Hemp: From where and how much?Year Total (kg) Riga Kaliningrad Gdansk Klaipeda Baltijsk Liepaja Pärnu

Warne-munde Wolgast Lübeck

1730s 67719 29587 22227 159051740s 157184 56111 43822 10858 41600 925 2791 837 239

1750s 67397 23469 38004 59251760s 165757 142417 11882 10758 699

1770s 158610 155368 222 83 2936

1780s 69613 50934 15976 191 25121790s 29730 21411 635 7684

Total 716008 479298 132134 44354 42299 7684 3437 2936 2791 837 239

How much came from Baltic Sea?

17511753

17551757

17591761

17631766

17681770

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Stavanger: Total yearly import of Flax&Hemp and in total in STR.

OtherBaltic

Perc

enta

ge F

lax&

Hem

p by

YearTotal import X 1000kg

STR importX 1000kg

1751 37.7 1.81752 43.2 24.41753 32.2 0.01754 30.8 15.81755 50.6 1.51756 47.0 8.61757 23.9 0.81758 69.2 0.71759 38.6 13.21760 50.7 14.11761 39.5 0.61762 47.0 31.21763 49.0 6.51765 43.3 27.81766 41.7 11.51767 67.3 20.21768 75.9 14.31769 51.4 31.01770 49.4 0.0

Difference: • Flax&Hemp imported from outside Baltic.• To Stavanger from Baltic sea, but destination

port in STR was not Stavanger? • E.g: STR-Destination port Bergen, Trondheim.

Flax & Hemp offloaded in Stavanger?

Comparing import toll registers for Stavanger and STR

Total yearly import Stavanger and in STR cargoes

STR: Flax & Hemp & «Stry»/«Blaar»• Raw (dried) flax?

– =«Hør»?• Manufacturing flax/hemp

1. «Braake»2. «Skake»3. «Hegle» (Platt: Hekele, Dutch:

Geheekels)4. Spinn5. Boil6. Weave7. «Afstryge» (=Clean) –> «Blaar»/

«Stry» 8. Bleach

• Import: – 1/3 was flax, 1/3 hemp and 1/3

«blaar»• «Blaar»/«Stry» was a rest product

from cleaning cloth. Blaar/stry was spunn again

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BlaarHempFlax

Production: Household & Industrial

• 1 kg flax = 4 dw of spinning• Import average pro year 1751-70: 12000 kg =

48000 dw • Ca. 4-500 households in Stavanger, ca. 180

spinning (Tax: 1711 and 1736)• 48000 dw / 178 = 270 days• 8-10 spinners pro weaver?• 15 weavers in 1711, 178/15=12

Baltic trade merchant familySeehusen & Smith family

Elisabeth GodtzenMerchant (widow) 1694-1715

Lauritz Smith (1681-1755)

Johanne Leigh SmithMerchant (widow) 1755-1766

CapteinMichael Smith1766-73

Journal 1755-66 by Johanne Smith. 1766 by Michael Smith

Morten Seehuusen b. 1629 in Bredtsted, Holsten. D. 1694 Stavanger

Seehusen & Smith-family Major Baltic trade merchant family

• Powerful merchant-family 1680-1770s• Shipping, Sailcloth factory (1745), ship yard,

rope making• Long distance trade (Salt/Mediterranean Sea)• Baltic• c. 1770s also West-Indies

Madam Smith:Ordering flax and hempDate 24-9-1759

Passage# 458

Shipmaster Ole Krag from Stavanger

Tonnage Huckerten dr. 14 læster

Cargo

Depart. Dest. Amount Unit Comm.

1. Riga Stavanger 24 Skippund Hamp

2. Riga Stavanger 20 Skippund 3 B. hør

3. Riga Stavanger 32 1/2 Skippund Blaar

4. Riga Stavanger 3 1/10 Skippund Rakitsker hør

5. Riga Stavanger 2 1/5 Skippund P. N. hør

6. Riga Stavanger 10 Ruller Seildug

7. Riga Stavanger 300 Arsheen Lærred

8. Riga Stavanger 1 Saffianskind

9. Riga Stavanger 1 PackshenImages

Sonttolregisters-231_0293.jpg

From: Madam Johanne Smith Leigh Letter to Dyrsen&Ebel in RigaSent 4. Mai 1759 on ship by shipmaster Ole KragAs payment for 3 lasts haering• 8 skpd beste Vlas Heede• 3 skpd beste beste |-Machetscher-|Ruusen 3

bande Vlas,• 2 skpd 3 bands Vlas Liefland Vlas inbonden• 2 skpd geheekels Tors• 2 skpd Bye Hemp• 1 skokk ordinaire geblegt & Krul linneVoor de helfte in 1 Oxhoofde & 1 ton tran van mijn zoon Capt. Mich. Smith gesonden”Returned 24. September 1759 thru Øresund

Source: 1:Smith Journal 1755-66, SASt, Stavanger Regional Archive2: STR Online

«Stavanger seilduksfabrikk» (Sail cloth factory)

1746:«Industrial espoinage» in AmsterdamInventory: Exact building costs, day by day

Sail cloth factory abt. 1865. Then used for tanning

Book-keeping of Sail cloth Factory

Item (Amount flax, labour, cost of labour etc) Riksdaler Riksdaler Mk Skilling

Ditto for aaret 1749 Til 12 persohners underholdning 221 3 8

Klæder til 10 drenge, samt .. 79Hamp udi de 2de Aar forbrugt war:196 vaage beste Køningsberger og Riga hamp a 2 1/4 rd 441 351726 vage beste Pass hamp 39 467151 vage hegl Tors a 1 rd 16 sk 176Total 656Hegle løn for 373 vaager a 10s 38 3 10Spinde løn til ??, der spindes af koner i byen 416? 3? A 36 sk 156 5Div. løn 67 1Banke, bøge og blege løn 27 3Vever løn for 46? A 10s 76 2 16Mester Wurgers uge penge a 4 sk og frie kost til dato for 47 uger 31 1 8

1578 18

Production: Ca. 4000 kg hemp Pro yearSpinners: 10 boys, Weaver: 1 personCosts of «putting out»

• «Hegling», spinning (by women in town), cleaning, bleaching and weaving

Productions methods

France c. 1500

Braake

«Hegle» (Hekele, gehekeln)

Spinning (Dutch spinning wheel)

Different types of spining wheels for flax and for wool.

Products from Stavanger 1743• Flax: Finer cloths • Hamp: Rope+Sail

Textile samples from Stavanger 1743, NBO Ms. Fol 333, (Bendix de Fine, 1743)

Textile: Sale and exportItem Translation12 Ducin her knøttede ulden hoeser 12 dozin wool socks49 al vadmel 30.87 m wool cloth14 al dito 8.82 m wool cloth20 al blaarlærret 12.6m blaar (flax)

canvas35 al hørlærret 22.05m flax canvas20 al stoff cloth1 ducin grove ulden hoeser Wool socks5 stk ulden nattrøi Wool night gown30 al bleget lærret Bleched canvas100 al vadmel Wool cloth9 mk uldgarn, Wool yarn1 ducin hoeser, 12 socks60 al blegt lærret Bleached canvas27 al dito Bleached canvas27 al dito Bleached canvas14 al stof

cloth

samt 70 al lærret,alt her fabriqueret frie

Canvas, all produced in Stavanger

Source: Stavanger toll register 1751 fol. 122a

Transported to Bergen, 1751:

Also:Export of textile products to:• Copenhagen,• Helsingør,• Nederlands?,• Bergen

(Norway)• Towns of east

of Norway

Verlagssystem («Putting-out») in Stavanger

Baltic: Flax, Hemp, «Stry/Blaar»Holland?: «Stry»/«Blaar»Stavanger region: Wool from sheep

To: Bergen, towns in eastern Norway, Nederlands, Denmark.

Entrepeneur:Lauritz Smithin Stavanger Products: Sailcloth, cloth, socks

«Putting-out»1. Hekling2. Spinning3. Bleaching4. Colouring

Concluding remarks• Stavanger & Norway

– Verlagsystem in Norway• Stavanger unique in Norway? Or just lacking interest from Norwegian historians?

– Textile industry (mid 18th c)• Strong urban growth, descreasing social differences?

– Overseas Shipping 1780s-1807• Stabile population, increasing social differences and growing political tension

• In general– (Pre-industrial) textile production

• Neglected by historians – it was women work & business – Production function as factor of urban growth of pre-industrial towns

underestimated? – Town specialisation

• 2/3 of costs of cloth/sailcloth were labour costs (wage)• Location of production: Areas of low labour costs (=Stavanger)

– Location of production to low-wage regions? (Stavanger, then later to the countryside)– Wage costs: Explains why spinning was early mechanised/industrialised.

Concluding remarks 2• History: Riga & Gdansk & Kaliningrad

– How was supply-side of textile economy organised and structured

• Method– Always use two independent toll registers– E.G. Controlling STR to Stavanger Toll Registers

• STR online– Downloadable coded&standardised data (in SPSS format)

because «I just want numbers&codes»• Expand STR online

– Become a European «clearing house» of digital tollregisters, ship lists, etc.

Conclusion 3

Thanks RUG & Tresoar!

Stavanger 1793