Mark Kurlansky's Cod and Structures of Everyday Life

Mark Kurlansky's Cod

Ever since the period of the Vikings, cod fish has played a tremendous role in the world, more specifically Europe and the Americas. Mark Kurlansky explores all of the different effects cod has had on the world in his book Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World. The seemingly normal fish is responsible for a great amount of exploration, migration, and can be blamed for starting a few wars. Many fishermen fishing for cod have found great riches, while others suffered serious injuries, some even losing their lives at sea. The cod certainly has shaped our world's history, creating the world we live in today.

Even before Columbus “discovered” the Americas, it is suspected that the Basques had been fishing for cod from the Great Banks for many years (18). Europeans had access to cod on European shores, but not in the amounts that they saw while trading with the Basques. While in search of finding a westward route to Asia in 1497, John Cabot, under his voyage for Henry VII of England, came across the rocky shores of Newfoundland. He reported a great amount of cod fish and an excellent rocky coastline for drying and salting fish (28). He claimed this land for England, and thirty-seven years later, French explorer Jacques Cartier found and claimed the mouth of the St. Lawrence for France (29). For hundreds of years to come, several different nations would try to gain access to these fishing grounds.

During the eighteenth century, cod had fed New England's previous hunger. Colonists were also getting many goods from trading cod such as wine, iron, coal, sugar, molasses, tobacco, cotton, and even slaves (81). The New Englanders demanded more molasses for making rum, and began trading with the French. In 1733, in attempt to keep control on molasses trade with New England, the British created the Molasses Act. This Act would make trade almost impossible to be profitable. However, it ended up failing because of the French and New Englanders agreed to a contraband trade (95). The Molasses Act could actually be considered one of the first steps leading to the American Revolution. Several other taxes and strategies were used by the British to try and stop American trade. All of these ended up failing because of the colonists' contraband trades or boycotts. The move that would finally push New Englanders into war was the Restraining Act set forth on July 12, 1775. This act would eliminate all New England's fishing in the Great Banks, which was one of their most profitable markets at the time (97). This finally sparked the Revolution that separated America from England, and it all started because of trading of cod. Two other 'Cod Wars' were also started regarding fishing rights fought between England and Iceland.

Recently the cod supply has gone down drastically, something that people declared could never happen. There are many regulations set on fishing cod and much research going into trying ...