Abstract

Three key points are advanced in this paper. The first is that for the English the businesses of fishing and trade in the North Atlantic were inseparable. This does not mean that every vessel did both, but rather that it is wrong to assume that most ships were engaged exclusively in either fishing or trade. The second point is that the participants in fishing operations were working according to different strategies, which become comprehensible once we understand the cultural context in which their decisions were made. The final point is that the study of the fishing by the English and an understanding of the trading operations by the Hansa has helped to clarify the emerging concept of second-stage commercialisation of the fishing industry.