On examining the historic (data) from the last centuries of the Middle Ages, Dr. Bull of Christiania has come to the conclusion that the decay of the Norwegian kingdom was not so much a consequence of the political conditions at that time, as of the frequent failures of the harvest so that corn [wheat] for bread had to be imported from Luebeck, Rostock, Wismar and so forth. The Hansa Union undertook the importation and obtained political power by its economic influence. The Norwegian land-owners were forced to lower their rents. The population decreased and became impoverished. The revenue sank 60 to 70 per cent. Even the income from Church property decreased. In 1367 corn was imported from Luebeck to a value of one-half million kroner. The trade balance inclined to the disadvantage of Norway whose sole article of export at that time was dried fish. (The production of fish increased enormously in the Baltic regions off south Sweden because of the same changes which were influencing the lands, but this did not benefit Norway.) Dr. Bull draws a comparison with the conditions described in the Sagas when Nordland [at the Arctic Circle] produced enough corn to feed the inhabitants of the country. At the time of Asbjoern Selsbane the chieftains in Trondhenaes [still farther north in latitude 69 deg.] grew so much corn that they did not need to go southward to buy corn unless three successive years of dearth had occurred. The province of Trondheim exported wheat to Iceland and so forth. Probably the turbulent political state of Scandinavia at the end of the Middle Ages was in a great measure due to unfavorable climatic conditions, which lowered the standard of life, and not entirely to misgovernment and political strife as has hitherto been taken for granted.