Ísa Fjord

The fjord waters around Ísafjörður carried fishing boats and merchant ships to the trading settlement on Skutulsfjarðareyri. Under Denmark's trade monopoly, merchants generally arrived in spring and sailed home in autumn. The trading buildings began modestly, with timber, turf and stone; the surviving Krambúðin warehouse and shop dates from 1757.

In 1764 the General Trading Company took over Icelandic trade, and merchants in the Westfjords began staying through winter. Teaching the processing of salted cod, increasingly desired in Europe, helped make permanent residence worthwhile. A house for the resident factor followed in 1765, with further warehouses in 1781 and 1784. When the monopoly ended in 1787, merchants from Altona took over the station. Jens Lassen Busch and Henrik Christian Paus succeeded them in 1793, and Matthías Wilhelm Sass bought the business in 1824. These changing companies linked the fjord's fisheries with overseas markets through an increasingly permanent shore establishment.