Abstract:
Work combinations have played an important role in Norwegian economic history. This is particularly the case for the primary occupations, agriculture and fisheries. One of the numerous combinations was agriculture and whaling. In particular the pelagic whaling in Antarctic waters was well suited for combination with agriculture, as it enabled utilizing the seasons the different geographic zones. Moreover, one must expect that the income level within whaling appeared attractive, also for agents from other primary occupations. The dissertation analyses the significance of this - so far research wise neglected - occupational combination.
The study is limited to the period 1925-1940. Its geographical origin is Vestfold county, with the rural communities Sandar, Stokke and Våle as specific study sites. The three main research questions in the dissertation are:
- How many farmers and farmers' sons participated in whaling activity?
- What were the social and economic conditions for those participants?
- In which ways were the whaling and farming sectors influenced by each other?
In a broad attempt to cover most of the available sources, the dissertation is able to quantify approximately the number of whaling farmers. About 25 to 30 percent of all whalers were also connected to the agricultural sector - either by running a farm or by kinship relations. Locally, these figures could be much higher, for example, in some regions in Vestfold, almost three out of four whalers had a farming background. At the end of the period the share of farming whalers was slightly decreasing.
The second question is answered by incorporating previously unused sources, namely the whaling companies' payrolls. It is shown that the mean income for whalers was at a higher level than previously estimated by whaling historians. At the same time, the whalers' average income also was lower than what many contemporary opinions would indicate. The dissertation carries out a comparison between whaling incomes and shore workers' earnings, trades other than industry are incorporated in such an analysis. Within the whalers' hierarchy, there was a broad range of wage levels. But for all of them the following statement is true: compared to any shore work, employment in whaling resulted in a higher nominal wage.
The answer to the third question is less evident. Despite of many indicators that the money from whaling benefitted the agricultural sector in Vestfold, explicit quantitative figures for that claim could not be supported. Neither was the number of forced farms sales lower in whaling regions than in other parts of Norway, nor were the farms in whaling regions equipped with more technically advanced tools than in other parts of the country. Likewise, the development of the real estate prices did not show an increased interest for land ownership in Vestfold. Nonetheless, the contribution from whaling to both the individual farmer, the county's and the country's economic situation (through taxable income) must be assumed to have had a certain and important weight in the overall economic parameters of the inter-war period's difficulties.
As a contribution to a more international perspective, the dissertation also contains a note with regard to the Norwegian participation in German whaling expeditions.
Key words: Whaling, agriculture, relative wages, economic history.
The dissertation was handed to the committee for evaluation in September 2003, and successfully defended on December 12, 2003. Professor Stein Tveite was the advisor of this dissertation.
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Robert Lalla was born in Essen, Germany, in 1974. He currently works as a researcher in the Department of Economics and Resource Mananagement at the Agricultural Univiersity of Norway. |
