ABSTRACT
Until the great debacle of 1710 in the North, it is true, Norway's (and especially Bergen's) earnings from freights and charterparties enjoyed a wartime boom, thanks to the new openings in Biscay, the increased carriage of its English trade, and some substitution for Dutch carriers. To perceive something of the political repercussions of wartime losses, we need some idea of who the losers were. Before noticing wartime losses it is pertinent to recollect that the characteristic vessels in these trades – the flyboats and pinks, the barques and brigantines, the ketches and hoys – were extremely numerous and of small tonnage. The recent expansion of English tonnage generally had indeed imposed a huge strain on the nation's capital stock – Sir William Petty, the pioneer statistician, estimated it at no less than ten per cent, exclusive of real estate.
