9. Hr Th. A. Thomsen, a Dane of Flensburg, born in Iceland. He passes the winter at Copenhagen; and, besides being one of the principal traders, he is well-known for his civility and kindness to strangers.

10. Hr Edward Siemsen, at the east end of the town. He is agent for his brother and their nephew, and he also acts Consul for Denmark.

Including M. Randrŭp, Consul de France, the Consular Corps, none of them belonging to la carrière, consists of three, England, of course, being unrepresented, though she does the largest business in coal and salt. Thus the tricolor is the only foreign flag seen in the island, the other two staves bear Danish colours. As has been shown, most of the traders pass only the summer in [257] Iceland, and they solace themselves with frequent rides and picnics at the Laxá River.

Kerguelen has left us an excellent description of the Iceland trade in A.D. 1767. It was managed by a Danish company (No. 2, before alluded to), which had bought an exclusive privilege from the king, and which kept factors and warehouses at the several stations. The only money was fish and butter,[258] whilst one ell of pig-tail (tobacco) = one fish. The fisheries were very extensive, and would require four frigates thoroughly to protect them. Exports were included under salt meat, beef, and mutton; tallow; butter, close packed; wool in the grease; skins of sheep, foxes, and seals; feathers, especially eider down; oil of whales, sharks, and seals; fine and coarse jackets of Wadmal, woollen stockings, and mitts; stock-fish and sulphur. The imports were fishing-tackle, horse-shoes, carpenters’ woods, coffee and sugar, tobacco and snuff, beer, brandy, and wine, dry goods (calicoes, etc.), flour (wheat and rye), bread and biscuit.

The imports of the present day, to mention only those of chief importance, are timber, salt, coals, grain, coffee, spices, tobacco, and liquor. The timber consists of pine and fir, mostly the latter; the forms are beams for roofing and framing, twenty-two to twenty-four feet long, one-inch boards for side-lining of houses, three-inch planks, and finer woods for the joiner. Salt comes chiefly from Liverpool, which is ousting the Spanish trade, and the average price may be $2 per barrel = 176 pots = 44 gallons. The people declare that they cannot afford the expense of salt-pans, and that the sun is hardly hot enough for evaporation: this was not the case a few years ago, but Iceland, like Africa, finds it cheaper to import the condiment. English coals are carried in British bottoms, either direct or viâ Copenhagen; from the latter only small quantities come; birch wood, sawn and split for fuel, is introduced for private use, not for the general market; and there is no charcoal at Reykjavik, although birch “braise” is found inland. The cereals, whose consumption ranges from twenty-four to thirty bushels a head, are wheat and rye, in grain, flour, and biscuit; baking-ovens are found only at the capital. The rice is more often cheap “Rangoon,” than fine “Carolina;” the people, who are fond of rice-milk, do not appear to know the difference, and the import quintupled between 1864-70. The spices are chiefly cinnamon, generally mixed with black pepper; pepper,[259] cloves, and nutmegs. Coffee,[260] whose consumption is 6·7 pounds per head, is chiefly the Brazilian growth; tea is very rare, and a little chocolate is brought from Copenhagen. In hard times, for instance after 1855, the consumption of these luxuries notably falls off. The tobaccos are usually the common Danish article; foreign growths are represented by twist, for chewing as well as smoking; by shag, bird’s-eye, and some specimens of the thousand mixtures which have become so popular of late. As may be expected, the cigars are dear and bad; the best, or at least the most expensive, are the Hamburg “Havannahs,” which are pretentiously wrapped up in a plaintain-leaf, veritable “cabbage.” Perhaps the favourite form is snuff (= about $3 per pound), which is loved by males of all classes and ages. There are few men who “take nothing between their fingers;” the consumption of this Tupi article is about two pounds per head of males.[261]

The list of wet goods in a general store is extensive, including port and sherry, claret and champagne, rum and cognac, with liqueurs like cherry-brandy. These are mostly dear and bad; the beer imported for tavern use, and the Brennivín, Kornschnapps, or rye-spirits, are too cheap to be adulterated, except for the peasantry. Not a few country merchants can sell per annum of this liquor twenty barrels, each containing thirty gallons. The Althing imposed an import tax, to come into force on July 1, 1872, of $0, 0m. 8sk. (about 2½d.) per pot or quart, upon every bottle of wine and spirits, beer only being excepted.[262] But the law unhappily said “drinkable spirits,” and the merchants were able to exempt pure and methylated alcohols from the impost. Consequently “brandies” were made at Reykjavik and at other trading stations, greatly to the detriment of public health as well as of morality, and despite the exertions of sensible men like Dr Hjaltalín, the “Land-physicus.” The duty upon twenty barrels would be $200; it is paid into the Treasury under the charge of the Landfógeti, superintended by the Stiftamtmaðr. The sooner an “Adulterations Act” is passed the better, but in Iceland as elsewhere magna est pecunia et prevalebit. The island is not cursed with a Manchester school and its moral mildew, but commercial interests are amply sufficient for more than self-protection.

It may be useful to compare the prices in 1810 by Stephensen (History of Iceland), with those of 1872, on the western and eastern coasts:

In 1810.In 1872.On East Coast.
1 pair trade mitts,$004—6$020$00 14—20
1 pair stockings$0012—18$040$020
1 pair fine socks,$0064 to $1$100none made for sale.
1 common Wadmal jacket,$0040—60$3 to $4none made for sale.
1 fine Wadmal jacket,$2 to $3$600none made for sale.
1 lb. (Dan.) wool,$00 12—20$034$02 to %0 4
1 lb. eider down,$230 to $3$730$700
1 lb. feathers,$0017—20$020$020
1 lb. tallow,$0016—22$014$010
1 lb. butter,[263]$0010—28$020$010
1 Skippund (320 lbs.) “flat fish,”[264]$12 to $20$26 00$20 00
1 Skippund klip-fish,[265]$15 to $30$30 to $40none.
1 barrel sharks’ liver oil,$12 to $20$3000$2500
1 skin, white or Arctic fox (C. lagopus),$30 0$146none on East Coast
1 skin, blue (i.e., deep iron grey) fox,$300$8 0 0none on East Coast
1 brown (C. fuliginosus),$500$800none on East Coast
1 Rein-deer skin,[266]$500$530
100 Swan-quills,$2 to $3$800very rare.
A horse,$6 to $40 according to demand,£3 to £10
A cow,$16 to $24$50 to $80and upwards.
A wether,[267]$2 to $5$900$900
1 ewe and lamb,$2 to $2½$1200$900
A lamb,$120$300not for sale.

Details of imports for 1865, occupying nearly a page and a half, will be found in the Consular Report of that year; the total importations represented £21,468. The kind, weight, and value of the primary items are thus tabled in 1870-71: the account applies to the whole island, but only the principal articles are mentioned: