Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/181

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Government.&mdash;Excluding the extreme northern parts of Greenland, and the north-east coast, which may be claimed by the English, American, and Germans “by right of discovery,”—the trade of Greenland is a strict monopoly of the Danish crown, dating from 1774, and is at present administered in Copenhagen by a Government board, the “Kongelige Grönlandske Handel,”—and in the country by various officials in Government pay. In order to meet the double purposes of government and trade, the west coast, up to nearly 74° N. lat., is divided into two inspectorates, the southern extending to 67° 40′ N. lat., the northern comprising the rest of the country, their respective seats of government being at Godthaab and Godhavn. These inspectorates are ruled by two superior officials or governors responsible to the director of the board in Copenhagen. Each of the “inspectorates” is divided into “districts,” each district having, in addition to the capital or “coloni” (a hamlet containing three or four Danish dwellings, a storehouse, blubber-boiling house, in a few cases a Lutheran “missionair” or clergyman, a teacher, and a physician), several outlying posts and Eskimo hunting stations, each presided over by an “udligger,” who is responsible to the “colonibestyrer” or superintendent of the district. These trading settlements, which dot the coast for a distance of 1000 miles, are about 60 in number, and collect the products from 176 inhabited places. From these Eskimo hunting and fishing stations blubber is the chief article received, in parcels weighing from 50 to 100 ℔, and forwarded in casks to the “coloni,” where it is boiled into oil, and prepared for being despatched to Copenhagen by means of the Government sailing ships, which arrive and leave between May and November. For the rest of the year all navigation is stopped, though the winter months form the busy seal-killing season. The principle which the Government acts upon is to give the natives low prices for their produce, but to sell them European articles of necessity at prime cost, and other stores, such as bread, at prices which will scarcely pay for the purchase and freight, while no merchandize is charged, on an average, more than 20 per cent. over the cost price in Denmark. In addition, the Greenland people are allowed to order goods from private XI. —