A nineties book about the history of salt mentioned the cod trade. It implied strongly that the Basques were exploiting the Labrador/Newfoundland fishery for over a full century before Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. That cod was mysteriously being eaten in large quantities across Europe long, long after the North Sea had been fished out.
The book mentioned a letter preserved from a merchant guild to Columbus, telling him they knew damned well he had stolen his route from the Basques, so why wouldn’t he come out and admit it?
I wonder if cod bones could be unearthed and dated from the 1300’s - 1400’s and conclusively traced to the New World?
Is that book “salt”
Fisherman could have been fishing near Iceland and Greenland, which were known 1000 years ago.