Economic conditions

Norway was also severely hit by the economic crisis that followed the Napoleonic Wars. Norway’s exports consisted mainly of wooden goods to Great Britain and, to a certain extent, of glass and iron products. After the war, when the British introduced preferential tariffs on articles of wood from Canada, Norwegian forest owners, sawmills, and export firms were badly hit. Iron and glass exports also met with marketing difficulties. Fish—which, after timber, was the country’s most important export commodity—was only lightly hit by the slump, and by the 1820s the herring fisheries on the west coast were undergoing a period of vigorous expansion. From the 1850s agriculture developed rapidly. Modern methods were adopted, with an emphasis on cattle breeding. Simultaneously, the building of railroads began ending the isolation of the small communities and opening the way for the sale of agricultural products.

It was, however, the great expansion of merchant shipping (especially between 1850 and 1880) that gave the most powerful boost to the country’s economy. Norway’s percentage of world tonnage rose from 3.6 percent to 6.1 percent, and at the end of the century Norway possessed, after the United Kingdom and the United States, the largest merchant navy in the world. The economic resources that merchant shipping brought to the country laid the basis for industrialization. From 1860 Norway’s industry expanded rapidly, especially in the timber and wood-pulp trade and engineering. Socially and economically this expansion was a springboard for shipowners, manufacturers, and businessmen, all of whom began to play a much greater role in politics toward the end of the 19th century.

Parliamentary authority

The Eidsvoll constitution of 1814 gave the Storting greater authority than parliamentary bodies had in any other country except the United States. The king retained executive power and chose his own ministers, but legislation, the imposition of taxes, and the budget were within the authority of the Storting. The Storting had the power to initiate legislation, and the king had only a suspension veto. When Charles XIV John (ruled 1818–44) demanded the right of absolute veto, the Storting categorically refused, despite the king’s attempt to intimidate them with shows of military strength. Faced with this unanimous resistance, the king was forced to abandon his struggle, and the Storting’s dominant position became the firm defense against Swedish attempts to further unite the two countries. As a national demonstration, Norway began in the 1820s to celebrate May 17, the date of the Eidsvoll constitution, as a national day. The king’s attempt to outlaw the celebration resulted in violent demonstrations, and during the 1830s he conceded this point also.

Monetary problems

Norway had at the same time many major problems to resolve on the domestic front. The war, which had been financed to a great extent by an increased issue of bank notes, had brought about a reduction of the local currency to one-fifteenth of its prewar value. To ward off inflation, a severe sterling tax was imposed, and in 1816 a new bank of Norway was established that held the monopoly on issuing bank notes. In spite of strong precautionary measures, however, it was not until the currency reform of 1842 that finances were stabilized. From an economic point of view, the civil service was decidedly liberal, and the guild system and old trade regulations were abolished during the 1840s and ’50s. By 1842 it was decided to reduce tariffs, a decision that gradually made Norway a free-trade country.

Political change

The influence that the vote gave to the farmers was not exploited at first, and they continued to elect civil servants as their parliamentary representatives. About 1830, however, a demand was raised for a decrease in expenditure, and, under the leadership of Ole Gabriel Ueland, a more deliberate “class” policy began to be conducted in the Storting. In 1837 a statute regarding local self-government was enacted that offered training for grassroots politicians. The farmers’ policy led to sharp conflicts with influential groups of bureaucrats and finally became a struggle for political power on the national level. Under pressure from a radical labour movement, which arose after 1848 under the leadership of Marcus Thrane, and from the later mounting tension in the relationship with Sweden, many farmers turned to the middle classes and the minor civil servants. The intensely nationalistic attitude of this leftist coalition was expressed in its attempts to strengthen national culture and language. The struggle for the introduction of the vernacular as the official language, instead of the bureaucrats’ Danish-influenced tongue, became an important item of the coalition’s policy. The coalition was organized as the Venstre (Left) political party in 1884.