The fisheries are the most important of Europe, and this fact has had a great influence on the history of the people. Centuries ago the people living about the vigs or fjords of the west coast were compelled to depend almost wholly on the fisheries for their food-supplies. As a result they became the most famous sailors of the world. They established settlements in Iceland and Greenland; they also planted a colony in North America 500 years before the voyage of Columbus. Herring, salmon, and cod are the principal catch of the fisheries, and about four-fifths of the product is cured and exported to the Catholic European states and to South America.
South of Kristiania farming is the principal industry. Much of the land is suitable for wheat-growing, but the productive area is so small that a considerable amount of bread-stuffs must be imported from the United States. On account of the high latitude the winters are too long and severe for any but the hardiest grains. Dairy products are commercially the most important output of the farms, and they find a ready market in the popular centres of Europe—London, Hamburg, Paris, and Berlin.
The lumber, furniture, matches, fish, ores, and dairy products sold abroad do not pay for the bread-stuffs, coal, petroleum, clothing, and machinery. In part, this is made up by the carrying trade of Norwegian vessels; the rest of the deficit is more than met by the money which the throngs of tourists spend during the summer months.
The United States buys from these countries fish and ores to the amount of about three million dollars a year; it sells them cotton, petroleum, bread-stuffs, and machinery to the amount of about twelve million dollars.
Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is the chief financial and distributing centre of the Scandinavian trade. Its railway system reaches about every area of production. Although having a good harbor of its own, it must depend on Trondhjem (Drontheim) for winter traffic, because the Baltic ports are closed by ice three or four months of the year. Kristiania, the capital of Norway, is the export market of the fish and lumber products.
Göteborg, owing to recently completed railway and canal connections, is becoming an important port of trade. It is convenient to other European ports, and it is rarely closed by ice. Bergen, Trondhjem, and Hammerfest derive a heavy income from their fisheries and likewise from the tourists who visit the coast during midsummer. The last-named port, although farther north than any town in the world, has an open harbor during the winter.
Denmark.—Denmark is essentially an agricultural state, and almost every square mile of available land is under cultivation. Even the sand-dunes have been reclaimed and converted into pasturage. The yield of wheat is greater per acre than in any other country, but as only a small area is sown, wheat and flour are imported.
About half the area of the state is used in growing fodder for horses and cattle. The dairy products, especially butter, are unrivalled elsewhere in Europe. The dairy business is largely controlled by a cooperative association of dairymen and farmers. Pastures, fodder, cattle, sheds, creameries, and all the processes involved are subject to a most rigid sanitary inspection.
Copenhagen, the capital, is the financial centre of the kingdom. Commercially it is one of the most important ports of Europe. Various shipments consigned to Baltic ports are landed at this city; here the cargoes break bulk and are again trans-shipped to their destination. In order to facilitate this forwarding business, the Crown has made Copenhagen a free port. Steamship lines connect it with New York, British ports, and the East Indies.
A great deal of farming and dairy machinery is manufactured; coal, cotton goods, and structural machinery are imported from the United States. Little, however, is exported to that country, almost all the dairy products being sold to Great Britain and other populous centres of western Europe. Aalborg and Aarhuus are dairy-markets.