Formannskapsdistrikt

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Formannsskapsdistrikt was the name for a Norwegian local self-government district. The system of formannsskapsdistrikts was created in a bill approved by the Storthing and signed into law by King Carl Johan on January 14, 1837. The law, which fulfilled an expess requirement of the Constitution of Norway, required that every parish (in Norwegian prestegjeldPrestegjeld is an geographic and administrative district in the Norwegian State Church.) form a formannsskapsdistrikt. In this way, the Norwegian State Church districts of the country became worldly, administrative districts as well, creating 373 formannsskapsdistrikt in 1837.

The introduction of self-government in rural districts was a major political change. The Norwegian farm culture (bondekultur) that emerged came to serve as a symbol of nationalistic resistance to the forced union with Sweden. The legislation of 1837 gave both the towns and the rural areas the same institutions: a minor change for the town, but a major advance for the rural communities. The significance of this legislation is hailed by a nationalistic historian, J.E. Sars”:

“So great an advance in relation to the political development of the people that on that account it can almost be placed alongside the Constitution. By it the free constitution was given a broad basis to rest upon and be nourished from, and became related to the daily life and activity of the people in such a way that its principles could penetrate everywhere and be most effectively acquired… There was at that time scarcely any European state where local self-government was so well organized & so widely ramified as it became in Norway by the legislation of 1837.”

In 1853 [As cited in the Norwegian Wiki article]—the date is alternately shown as 1863 in the land registration law superseded the formannsskapsdistrikt by introduction of a new designation, the municipality (in Norwegian herred). Two forms of municipality were created: rural and citymarket town.. Each district was to elect a body of select men of no less than 12 members (in Norwegian) and no more than 48 members. This body selected a quarter of their members as a committee which, together with the local magistrate, established taxes to be levied and improvements to be performed in the district. The local chairman also represented the municipality at the county level.

Almost one century later (1936) a local self-government district law was enacted which created 682 rural municipalities (landkommuner) and 65 city municipalities (bykommuner) in Norway. Among the city municipalities, 43 had the status of town (kjøpstad) and 22 were recognized harbors for export/import (ladestedNorway included a subordinate category to the market town, the “lading place” (lossested or ladested), which was a port or harbor with a monopoly to import and export goods and materials in both the port and for a surrounding outlying district. Typically these were locations for exporting timber and importing grain and goods. Local farm goods and timber sales were all required to pass through merchants at either a lading place or a market town prior to export. This incentive ensured that local trading went through local merchants, a technique which was so effective in limiting smuggling that customs revenues increased from less than 30% of the total tax revenues in 1600 to more than 50% of the total taxes by 1700.). [As cited in the Norwegian Wiki article]

References and notes

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