A ship that does not arrive is inconvenient.

Several ships that do not arrive are a crisis.

A generation of reduced trade can transform the economic logic of an entire society.

The physical remains also reveal social differences.

Not every Greenland farm was equally prosperous.

Large estates could command more labor and resources than small households.

Churches and major farms required organization beyond a single family.

This means the disappearance of the colony cannot be understood only as a household-level survival problem.