Troaking was the

barter In trade, barter (derived from ''baretor'') is a system of exchange in which participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. Economists dist ...

between the natives of Greenland and whalers from ports in Scotland. From the signing of the

Treaty of Kiel The Treaty of Kiel ( da, Kieltraktaten) or Peace of Kiel (Swedish and no, Kielfreden or ') was concluded between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Kingdom of Sweden on one side and the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway on the ...

in 1814 until the occupation of Denmark by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1940, Greenland was a protected and very isolated society. The Danish government, which governed Greenland as its colony, had been convinced that this society would face exploitation from the outside world or even extinction if the country was opened up, and thus it maintained a strict

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

of Greenland's economy barring any trading or fishing within a certain distance of the Greenlandic coast. It did not, however, prohibit the sale of small articles not used in their trade, thus creating a loophole that enabled the practice of troaking, a barter between the natives and the Scottish whalers.

References

{{reflist Whaling in Scotland History of Greenland Whaling in Denmark Trade