undefined | Better HN

0 pointsrunarberg6y ago0 comments

I suspect the knowledge was restricted to the working classes. I suspect that the noble classes didn’t really care about how Norese Greenlanders got their lumber, or how North Europeans got the fish they traded with. They’d much rather know where the Chinese get their silk, where the South Asians get their spices, or where the West Africans get their gold from.

Since the resources coming from the North Atlantic were not that valuable, the knowledge of the lands and culture there stayed with the people who worked it.

0 comments

8bitsrule6y ago

But there's evidence that there was a substantial Greenland walrus-ivory trade in the 1300s.

"The high value that medieval Europe placed on walrus ivory would have provided plenty of incentive to pursue it in Greenland. Craftsmen used ivory in luxury ornaments and apparel, and in objects like the famous Lewis chess set, discovered in Scotland in 1831. In 1327, an 802-kilogram parcel of Greenland tusks was worth a small fortune—the equivalent of roughly 780 cows or 60 tons of dried fish...."

(2016: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/why-did-greenland-s-...)

runarbergOP6y ago

True, but by the 1400s there was more plentiful ivory to be had from India and East Africa. On top of having to compete for market share with the east trade, the Norse also had to compete with the more technologically advanced Inuit for hunting grounds in west Greenland.

I’m guessing the European noble class didn’t really have to care about ivory from the North Atlantic when they knew they could have cheaper and more plentiful Ivory from the East.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse