Besides the sufferings caused by the elements, the curse of monopoly weighed for many a long year upon the miserable Icelanders. The Danish kings, to whom on the amalgamation of the three Scandinavian monarchies the allegiance of the people of Iceland was passively transferred, considered their poor dependency as a private domain, to be farmed out to the highest bidder. In the 16th century the Hanseatic Towns purchased the exclusive privilege of trading with Iceland; and in 1594 a Danish company was favored with the monopoly, for which it had to pay the paltry sum of 16 rix-dollars for each of the ports of the island. In the year 1862 a new company paid 4000 dollars for the Icelandic monopoly; but at the expiration of the contract, each of the ports were farmed out to the highest bidder--a financial improvement which raised the revenue to 16,000 dollars a year, and ultimately to 22,000. The incalculable misery produced by the eruption of the Skapta had at least the beneficial consequence that it somewhat loosened the bonds of monopoly, as it now became free to every Danish merchant to trade with the island; but it is only since April, 1855, that the last restrictions have fallen and the ports of Iceland been opened to the merchants of all nations. It is to be hoped that the beneficial effects of free trade will gradually heal the wounds caused by centuries of neglect and misfortune; but great progress must be made before Iceland can attain the degree of prosperity which she enjoyed in the times of her independence. Then she had above a hundred thousand inhabitants, now she has scarcely half that number; then she had many rich and powerful families, now mediocrity or poverty is the universal lot; then she was renowned all over the North as the seat of learning and the cradle of literature, now, were it not for her remarkable physical features, no traveller would ever think of landing on her rugged shores. [Illustration: 54. REYKJAVIK, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND.] CHAPTER VII. THE ICELANDERS. Skalholt.--Reykjavik.--The Fair.--The Peasant and the Merchant.-- A Clergyman in his Cups.--Hay-making.--The Icelander’s Hut.-- Churches.--Poverty of the Clergy.--Jon Thorlaksen.--The Seminary of Reykjavik.--Beneficial Influence of the Clergy.-- Home Education.--The Icelander’s Winter’s Evening.--Taste for Literature.--The Language.--The Public Library at Reykjavik.-- The Icelandic Literary Society.--Icelandic Newspapers.-- Longevity.--Leprosy.--Travelling in Iceland.--Fording the Rivers.--Crossing of the Skeidara by Mr. Holland.--A Night’s Bivouac.