Fredriksvern og verksbyene i Norge

Fredriksvern and the company towns in Norway About 25 company towns, mostly based on mining, can be identified in Norway in the 18th century, if we include very small ones with 200–300 inhabitants. Most people in a company town worked for the company, which also provided services like schools, churches, healthcare and often food supplies. It is obvious that a company town was a monopoly town. But the monopoly could be public or private, and the towns could be governed from within or remotely. Fredriksvern, which is presented in the most detail here, was an unusual company town, as it was connected to a naval shipyard. The shipyard was publicly owned, and the town can thus be classified as a public monopoly town. Who governed the town? Denmark-Norway was a strongly centralized state, and most decisions about Fredriksvern were made by the central administration in Copenhagen. However, the commander who knew the activity best could be influential by sending suggestions to Copenhagen. By far the biggest company town was Kongsberg, with around 8,000 inhabitants in the middle of the century. It was situated near a public silver mine and can also be classified as a public monopoly town, governed much like Fredriksvern. The five Norwegian copperworks situated in central Norway were, however, privately owned, mostly by shareholders living in Trondheim. Company towns like Røros, Kvikne and Løkken were consequently collective, private company towns, and they were governed remotely. Approximately 15 ironworks were situated in eastern and southern Norway. They were usually owned by individuals and could remain in the same families for generations. The small company towns connected to them can be called individual, private monopoly towns. The owners often lived in the town and behaved patriarchally towards their subordinates. To conclude: The company towns were monopoly towns, either public or private, and in the latter case either collective or individual. With the exception of most of the company towns connected to ironworks, they were governed from outside, in contrast to all other Norwegian towns.