According to the rules of the monastery, the monks had both ‘to till the ground and to follow all such profitable employment as was practicable.’ There were people among them who had a very fair knowledge of secular affairs, and who, moreover, did not always despise the good things of the world. Accordingly, the monks summoned competent artisans and work-people from Russia, and with their help they devised boat and ship building on the river Pasvig, and also further out in the Munkfjord at the Warehouse Inlet, where the water was clear of ice even in the winter. They had their own store of timber, and they were enabled to build comparatively large ships; in these they exported the produce of the country. A great number of rafts and boats were also built, and these were sold to the Russian and Norwegian fishermen. Besides boat-building, they also had salt-pans on such a large scale that they not only provided the whole fishing population with salt, but also exported salt to the interior of Russia. In their ships they brought back in return, ‘flour, wax, drapery goods, and cordage.’ The salt-pans were probably situated on Fiskerö, where the sea-water is least mixed with fresh-water from the inland rivers. One of the most remarkable of their doings was the erection of a mill at the Kujasuga River, immediately behind the monastery. This is the only establishment which existed during the prosperous days of the monastery of which there is any trace still left. The monks must have found that it was more profitable to import corn and to grind it themselves, than to import the ground flour, as is usually done now. They had also out-houses, and must have owned a considerable herd of cattle. They had occasion to clear out and till meadows, both on Fiskerö and along the Petschenga River. Several of the meadows where the monks used to mow their hay are now overgrown with birch-trees that are more than a century old. It may not have been exclusively for the sake of the flesh that they kept these herds of cattle, because the long fasts allow the Russians only to eat sparingly of meat. It was no doubt also for purposes of trade as well as for the sake of their skins. It is expressly stated that the monks possessed a tannery, and that they tanned leather both for their own requirements, and for supplying the people of the country.