Q: Siberian/Canadian/Nordic cash crops?

[Tanc49]

Hi folks,

Question. We know there are many cashcrops which grow in warmer climes, like Tobacco, indigo, sugar cane...
But what are possible cash crops available for subarctic climes, like Siberia, Canada or Scandinavia?

Now historically, since there was fur and more productive land elsewhere, there wasn't that much of a need for that, but wondering what could be possible?

Full disclosure, it's for a fantasy book. A 1860-ish tech state has had a lot of land freed through global warming and has decent irrigation techniques. Any idea?

 

[Analytical Engine]

Sugar beat grows in colder climates than sugar cane does.

Sugar beet - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Rhodiola rosea, a medicinal plant, grows all the way up to the arctic.

Rhodiola rosea - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ajkippen]

I can't think of anything that would make cash crop levels of money other than logging the forests. Possibly they could harvest pine nuts from the pine trees or grow and sell the flowers native to the subarctic climate as the Dutch did with tulips. Finally, if the climate is constant enough where they are, they could grow cranberries and blueberries, though these are susceptible to cold snaps.

 

[Somebody-Someone]

There was something in LoIaM?

 

[Arkenfolm]

I can't think of anything that would make cash crop levels of money other than logging the forests. Possibly they could harvest pine nuts from the pine trees or grow and sell the flowers native to the subarctic climate as the Dutch did with tulips. Finally, if the climate is constant enough where they are, they could grow cranberries and blueberries, though these are susceptible to cold snaps.

There's tons of native Arctic berries that grow in the tundra. Most are obscure local delicacies in Scandinavia, Russia, etc. but some are used to flavour liquors. Have something like cloudberry liquor, etc. become popular globally and you have an industry right there.

 

[AnonymousSauce]

Maple syrup?

 

[alexmilman]

Hi folks,

Question. We know there are many cashcrops which grow in warmer climes, like Tobacco, indigo, sugar cane...
But what are possible cash crops available for subarctic climes, like Siberia, Canada or Scandinavia?

Now historically, since there was fur and more productive land elsewhere, there wasn't that much of a need for that, but wondering what could be possible?

Full disclosure, it's for a fantasy book. A 1860-ish tech state has had a lot of land freed through global warming and has decent irrigation techniques. Any idea?

You really have to be more precise with your geographic definitions: “Siberia” has at least 3 definitions (see the map) and in the southwest where soils are exceedingly fertile black earths and the climate is a little more moderate, there is extensive cropping of wheat, barley, rye and potatoes, along with the grazing of large numbers of sheep and cattle. Starting from the late XIX - early XX (aka, when it got some sizeable population) Siberia was one of the main grain producing areas in the Russian empire. OTOH, if you are talking about the permafrost areas on the extreme North, the question becomes purely rhetorical (and climate change substantial enough to make these areas agricultural would probably put most of them and quite a few other places under the water). The areas in between tend to be too densely forested for a meaningful agricultural effort.

 

[Arkenfolm]

Qiviut (muskox wool) might work for this. Muskox don't do well in warmer and especially wetter climates thanks to disease so the Arctic is pretty much the ideal place. Instead of trucking in food, you'll want to feed them their native diet, some of which should be edible to humans (and may be local delicacies) so technically here you have your Arctic cash crop.

Rhodiola rosea, a medicinal plant, grows all the way up to the arctic.

It's also found very frequently in mountainous areas well south of the Arctic. Which brings up a critical issue that the Arctic is terrible for transportation since permafrost is a pain to build on and the coast is frozen most of the year and often only safe with icebreakers. If it's an Arctic/subarctic plant, odds are it either grows well south of there nearer to civilization in places like the Scandinavian mountains or the Rockies (I believe Rhodiola rosea or a relative grows in the continental US in the mountains) or it can be transplanted there. So take Rhodiola rosea, you wouldn't make a plantation in the Arctic, you'd make a plantation in Colorado down the road from Denver. Or for the muskox example, you'd once again want them in a place like Colorado.

 

[von Adler]

Regular cash "crops" for Nordic peasants were hemp, flax, wool, tar, charcoal and lumber. It was also common to keep pigs to sell the meat.

There's a reason the English/British and Dutch were so interested in the Baltic trade - the majority of their ship supplies in the form of hemp for ropes, tar for ships and lumber for shipbuilding came from there.

That said, none of them are crops that are suitable for large estate like farming like was done in the US south and the Caribbean.

 

[Jürgen]

Most of these region doesn’t really have potential cash crops, yes Scania and Denmark can produce massive amount of sugar beet, but...

1: Sugar beet only really became viable by mid 18th century and truly competitive by the mid 19th century.
2: Sugar beet can be grown in all of Europe, cash crops are often crops which can’t be grown on large scale in massive regions. If cotton was viable as a major crop in Europe, Europeans wouldn’t have set up colonies elsewhere to grow it.

In general agriculture in region in colder region tend to make use of the one thing they have a lot of; space. You can have a subsistence farmer in Ostrobothnia who have a small field which he can barely survive on, but at the same time he produce pine tar and timber out of the vast wilderness around him which he can sell, or you could have the same kind of farmer in Smaaland who work in a glass factory, or you can have a Jutish Heath peasant, who mostly live on a diet of potatoes he grow himself and raw milk, while he raise cattle to sell and hold bees.