4: BEFORE THE RAILWAY
On July 10, 1908, HM King Haakon VII stood at Svorkmo Station and declared the Thamshavn Line open. The industrialisation of mining at Løkken required efficient transport of the large quantities of pyrite that were to be delivered to the world.
The owners of the mining company, Christian Salvesen and Christian Thams, decided to build Norway’s first electric railway – which also became the world’s first successful railway powered by alternating current.
The Danish king’s dream
4:1
In the 1600s, Denmark-Norway was a monarchy where the king had total control over the kingdom’s resources. Christian IV had a strong desire to increase his tax revenues – including from the mines. To stimulate mining efforts, he introduced a scheme where whoever found ore would receive increased mining rights. And several copper mines were established: at Kvikne in 1632, Ytterøya in 1635, Røros in 1644 and Løkken in 1654.
The Danish king’s dissatisfaction
4:2
The King of Denmark-Norway maintained full control over the mining industry, with the power to both grant and revoke rights. Just before Christmas in 1683, Christian V sent a letter to Chief Mining Officer Brostrop von Schørt in Norway, complaining that a recently introduced mining edict had not been followed up. The edict was meant to increase mining efficiency in Norway – thus providing greater tax revenues for the king in Copenhagen. Now the king was dissatisfied and threatened to withdraw mining rights.
The mining edict was sent out ordering the county governors to announce it at suitable locations. Unfortunately, we have learned that this mining edict has not only not been followed, but has not even been announced in some places.
So our ‘Most Gracious’ will and command is that you forthwith ensure that said mining edict is immediately duly announced at all mining sites where this has not yet happened, and that you supervise it with diligence, so that everyone who has any share in mining sites, be it silver, copper, iron or other ores, whatever they may be, may forfeit these sites if they do not fully comply with the last issued ‘Most Gracious’ mining edict.
Written at our Royal Castle, Copenhagen, 22 December 1683.
Under our signet.
Christian / M: Moth.
Copper to the world
4:3
From the 1600s, copper became one of Trøndelag’s most important trade goods. The mining sites at Røros, Kvikne, Løkken and Selbu sent copper plates by horse to Trondheim, where they were shipped out to the world. The trade was controlled by the city’s merchants, and the prosperity it brought may have been one reason why many Danish merchant families settled in Trondheim.
A large proportion of the copper was sent to Amsterdam, and subsequently to the city of Stolberg, which made pots, needles, candlesticks, buttons and shoe buckles. Some of these products also found their way back to Norway.