ABSTRACT
Herring exports to the Baltic from the Netherlands in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were closely related to exports of the previous year rather than to aggregate levels of trade. Dutch domination of the European market for salted herring in the seventeenth century thus cannot be explained by some external factor but rather by the internal nature of the Dutch fishery: by technology, organization, and the institutions which administered it. An examination of the short-run relationship between Polish export earnings and Polish expenditure on herring imports shows little causal connection. The method for curing or pickling herring was well known during the Middle Ages. The development of technology in the herring fishery extended from the fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth century and took many forms. The boom in Dutch herring shipments coincided with the entry of Baltic grain into Mediterranean markets.
