The Baltic and the North Seas
SEAS IN HISTORY
Series editor: Geoffrey Scammell
Published titles
THE ATLANTIC
Forthcoming titles
THE MEDITERRANEAN
THE PACIFIC
THE INDIAN OCEAN
The Baltic and the North Seas
David Kirby and Merja-Liisa Hinkkanen
First published 2000
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
2000 David Kirby and Merja-Liisa Hinkkanen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Kirby, D. G.
The Baltic and the North Seas / David Kirby and Merja-Liisa Hinkkanen.
p. cm. (Seas in history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Baltic Sea RegionCommerce. 2. North Sea RegionCommerce.
I. Hinkkanen-Lievonen, Merja-Liisa. II. Title. III. Series.
HF4045.K57 2000
387.54'0948dc21
99-41806
CIP
ISBN 9780415132824
Contents
Illustrations
Maps
1 The Baltic and North Seas
2 Maritime Denmark
Plates
Preface
Seas and oceans cover roughly two-thirds of the surface of the globe. Since time immemorial they have provided mankind with food. In our age they have been found to contain a rich diversity of resources whose exploitation remains a matter of contention. But the waters of the world are more than a prime instance of natures munificence, or a handy dumping ground for the refuse of civilisation. They can be formidable obstacles to societies lacking the will or the means to cross them. Equally they can be a powerful stimulus to technology and a challenge to the skills of those who, for any reason, seek to use them. They can unite the cultures and economies of widely dispersed and radically different peoples, allowing knowledge, ideas and beliefs to be freely transmitted. The ports that develop along their littorals often have more in common with one another than with the hinterlands of the states or communities in which they are sited.
Yet since seas are in themselves so rich, and since for centuries they alone gave access to the wealth of many distant regions, land powers have put forward ambitious claims to exercise authority over them. In Europe, the justification or denial of such title has concerned thinkers and apologists since the days of Columbus and Vasco da Gama. Economic, political or strategic necessity, real or imagined, stimulated the growth of navies, which became formidable expressions of the power of the modern state. Seaborne commerce entailed the construction of ships which, however propelled, were for long among the most expensive and technologically advanced products of contemporary economies. The shipping industries of the world support a labour force whose social organisation and way of life radically differ from those of the rest of society.
But there is more to the history of the sea than the impressive chronicle of mans triumph over the elements, or battles fought, freights carried and ships launched. Everywhere, seas and oceans have had a significant cultural influence on the civilisations adjoining them.
Such matters, and much else besides, are examined in this wide ranging study of two distinct, but closely related seas. The fortunes of the North Sea and the Baltic have been linked, for better or worse, from the earliest times, whether in the heyday of Viking seafaring, in the bitter Anglo-Dutch wars of the seventeenth century, or in the brief interlude of the maritime ambitions of the recently deceased Soviet Union. This large and exacting task has been undertaken by David Kirby, author of distinguished studies of the Baltic world, and Merja-Liisa Hinkkanen, an authority on modern Baltic economic history and on seafaring life in that last great age of sail which survived in Finland to within living memory. The scope of their scholarship, encompassing a literature in a range of languages too often outside the competence of fellow Europeans, and their ability to bring together their conclusions in a bold, stimulating and original synthesis, make their book a major contribution not only to the maritime history of a particular region, but to the understanding of the whole relationship of humankind and the sea.
Geoffrey Scammell
Acknowledgements
To each of the following for their kind permission to reproduce illustrations or photographs in their possession, as indicated: bo Akademis bildsamlingar, Turku, Finland (9); DSB/Young & Rubicam, Copenhagen, and M-SAT Editions, Belgium (19); Eesti meremuuseum, Tallinn (7, 15); Langelands Museum, Rudkbing, Denmark (17); Lynn News and Trues Yard Fishing Museum, Kings Lynn (3); Sjhistoriska museet vid bo Akademi, Finland (8, 11, 14, 16, 18); Sjhistoriska museet, Stockholm (4); Southwark Local Libraries (10); Stavanger Maritime Museum, Norway (13); Vikingeskibsmuseet, Roskilde, Denmark (5). For many of the reproductions, we are grateful to Matti Penttil.
Introduction
A historical study centred on a stretch of water has all the charms but undoubtedly all the dangers of a new departure.
(Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II vol. 1, Glasgow, Fontana, 1986, p. 19)
Braudels cautionary words, written in the late 1940s, have rung in our ears more than once during the writing of this book. How does one tackle a topic as varied, multifaceted and yet as elusive as the sea, and more particularly, just how does one set about writing the history of a sea, let alone two? Those who have attempted to address this problem have invariably come up with solutions as diverse as the seas they cover. An older generation of historians, brought up in an era of imperial ambition and power politics, tended to define the seas and oceans in terms of dominance and conquest, and of European discovery. Since the 1980s, however, there have been several attempts to present the history of the seas as one of the peoples of the sea, to use Braudels term, rather than as arenas for the pursuit of power politics. Kenneth McPherson, for example, sees the Indian Ocean as a highway and as a channel for the distribution of commodities and for the spreading of ideas, religions and innovations, which has drawn the peoples around its coasts into a web of cultural and economic ties and commonalities for thousands of years.
Seas may unite, but they can also divide. In his study of the medieval Mediterranean, John Pryor discerns two simultaneous and quite contrary forces at work. The sea acts not only as a centripetal force bonding together the various peoples around the Mediterranean but also as a centrifugal element separating them and lying at the heart of their distinct historical developments.nations whose maritime frontiers they may mark. It is nonetheless entirely understandable that, in the aftermath of the Cold War and at a time of strong moves towards European integration, there should be considerable interest in the unifying and uniting aspects of the maritime girdle which surrounds so much of the continent.
