Why was whale oil a popular product?

Answer 1

Initially, it was because of certain products such as whale oil was rare and so commonly used so when whale oil gets lower than demand then the prices goes up which drives further whaling. Countries like Norway and Japan would say that it was cultural so whale meat is consumed in certain countries like Japan, so there is a demand for cultural purpose of whale meat and with the ban on commercial whaling, it gets harder each year. What drives whaling as well today is that certain countries rely on it as a main food source of protein and has more protein compare to fish, so this increases the profit when number of whales decrease or when the annual catch decreases.

Answer 2

it was better smelling than anything else