Iceland is invited #88776

Iceland is on the cards. Monopoly trade and Icelandic society 1602-1787. By Gísli Gunnarsson.

Gísli Gunnarsson (March 19, 1938 – April 7, 2020) was an Icelandic historian and professor at the University of Iceland.

Gísli completed an MA in history and economics at the University of Edinburgh in 1961 and a PhD in economic history from Lund University in 1983. He taught at a secondary school from 1961 to 1972 and was a lecturer in history at the University of Iceland from 1982 until his retirement. Gísli became a professor at the university in 1997. Gísli's doctoral thesis was entitled Monopoly, trade and economic stagnation: Studies in the foreign trade of Iceland 1602-1787 and dealt with monopoly trade in Iceland. The thesis was based on detailed research in archives in Denmark and Iceland.

His main work was the book Upp er Ísaland (Island Is Offered), which was based on his doctoral thesis and published in 1987. In it, Gísli criticized the traditional historical view that the Danes had forced a monopoly on Icelanders who had opposed the arrangement.