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Breaking Even: Political Economy and Private Enterprise in the Norwegian Glass Industry, 1739–1803

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2019

Rolv Petter Amdam ,
Robert Fredona  and
Sophus A. Reinert
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Abstract

Using internal debates and surviving account books, this article traces the eighteenth-century history of the Norwegian glass industry, created to exploit Norway's immense natural resource wealth, and of the chartered company that would later become Norway's iconic Christiania Glasmagasin. The investors in the company, many of them among Norway's “founding fathers,” were individually responsible for its losses and it operated, remarkably, at an annual loss for nearly five decades. The article asks why, beyond the anticipation of a royal import ban on foreign glass, private investors might have continued to accept such losses. It focuses on tensions between cameralist and liberal ideologies in the creation of an important national industry, and on older (and perhaps more sustainable) ways of thinking about profitability.

Keywords

Norwayglass industryprofitabilitypolitical economycameralismliberalizationpatriotismnatural resources
Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 93 , Issue 2 , Summer 2019 , pp. 275 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2019 

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Footnotes

This article draws on and develops work by Rolv Petter Amdam originally published in his chapters in Rolv Petter Amdam, Tore Jørgen Hanisch, and Ingvild Pharo, Vel blåst! Christiania Glasmagasin og norsk glassindustri 1739–1989 (Oslo, 1989). Robert Fredona's research was supported by a grant from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 793583. The authors are grateful to Geoffrey Jones and three anonymous reviewers for suggestions and constructive critiques. We also thank cartographer Isabelle Lewis for expertly drawing the two maps and Mathew W. Norris, executive director of analytics at the Art Institute of Chicago, for designing the charts.

References

1 On the Norwegian glass industry, and Christiania Glasmagasin in particular, see Amdam, Hanisch, and Pharo, Vel blåst!; and Jens W. Berg, Kortfattet historie om glassproduksjonen i Norge (Jevnaker, 1992).

2 See, for example, the case of Statoil in Thurber, Mark C. and Istad, Benedicte Tangen, “Norway's Evolving Champion: Statoil and the Politics of State Enterprise,” in Oil and Governance: State-Owned Enterprises and the World Energy Supply, ed. Victor, David G., Hults, David R., and Thurber, Mark (Cambridge, UK, 2012), 601–2Google Scholar.

3 O'Sullivan, Mary, “The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Capitalism,” Enterprise and Society 19, no. 4 (2018): 751–802CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 786–95.

4 This “privilege” is printed in G. E. Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker og Christiania Glasmagasin, 3 vols. (Oslo, 1939), 1:11–20.

5 The literature on these traditions is huge and growing. See, among others, Magnusson, Lars, The Political Economy of Mercantilism (London, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Minard, Philippe, La fortune du colbertisme: État et industrie dans la France des lumières (Paris, 1998)Google Scholar; Wakefield, Andre, The Disordered Police State: German Cameralism as Science and Practice (Chicago, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Reinert, Sophus A., “Rivalry: Greatness in Early Modern Political Economy,” in Mercantilism Reimagined: Political Economy in Early Modern Britain and its Empire, ed. Stern, Philip J. and Wennerlind, Carl (Oxford, 2013), 248–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the translation of emulation of such theories and practices around the European world, see Reinert, Sophus A., Translating Empire: Emulation and the Origins of Political Economy (Cambridge, MA, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the commercial world out of which this tradition emerged, see Robert Fredona and Sophus A. Reinert, “Merchants and the Origins of Capitalism,” in The Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business, ed. Teresa da Silva Lopes, Christina Lubinski, and Heidi J. S. Tworek (Abingdon, forthcoming).

6 Amdam, Hanisch, and Pharo, Vel blåst!, 10; Glamann, Kristof, “Et kameralistisk programskrift: Uforgribelige tanker om kommerciens tilstand of opkomst,” in Studier i dansk merkantilisme: Omkring tekster af Otto Thott, ed. Glamann, Kristof and Oxenbøll, Erik (Copenhagen, 1977), 11–77Google Scholar, esp. 24. On the war, see Ullgren, Peter, Det stora nordiska kriget 1700–1721: En berättelse om stormakten Sveriges fall (Stockholm, 2008)Google Scholar.

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11 Thott, 192. On the fire, see Kåre Lauring, Byen brænder: Den store brand i København 1728 (Copenhagen, 2003).

12 Thott, “Uforgribelige tanker,” 192.

13 For the list of all shareholders, see Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:57–60.

14 The classic work on the subject remains Tveite, Stein, Engelsk-norsk trelasthandel 1640–1710 (Bergen, 1961)Google Scholar. For an example of the longevity of this trade in global context, see Bang, Anne K., Zanzibar-Olsen: Norsk trelasthandel i Øst-Afrika 1895–1925 (Oslo, 2008)Google Scholar.

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18 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:51–54.

19 Christiansen, 1:11–20.

20 Reproduced in Amdam, Hanisch, and Pharo, Vel blåst!, 11.

21 Amdam, Hanisch, and Pharo, 11.

22 Caspar Herman von Storm to Morten Wærn, 19 Aug. 1760, Private archive no. 1, National Archives, Oslo (hereafter PA 1).

23 Amdam, Hanisch, and Pharo, Vel blåst!, 16.

24 In addition to Amdam, Hanisch, and Pharo, Vel blåst!, see Johansen, Lynn F., Glass på Hokksund før og nå ([Hokksund], 1998)Google Scholar; Polak, Ada, Gammelt norsk glass (Oslo, 1953)Google Scholar; and Gaustad, Randi, Skål for Norge! Nøstetangens spennende billedverden (Oslo, 1998)Google Scholar.

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26 On the German experts who first were brought to Norway for these purposes, see Amdam, Hanisch, and Pharo, Vel blåst!, 10, and, on the industrial espionage, 18–19. On the Danish government's involvement in releasing the spy Morten Wærn from his London jail, see Storm to Adam Gottlob Moltke, 9 Aug. 1755, PA 1. More broadly, on foreign workers in the industry in Norway, see also Minken, Anne, Innvandrere ved norske glassverk og etterkommerne deres (1741–1865): En undersøkelse av etnisk identitet (Oslo, 2002)Google Scholar. On industrial espionage at the time, see Harris, J. R., Industrial Espionage and Technology Transfer: Britain and France in the Eighteenth Century (London, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for the Norwegian case, see Amdam, Rolv Petter, “Industrial Espionage and the Transfer of Technology to the Early Norwegian Glass Industry,” in Technology Transfer and Scandinavian Industrialization, ed. Bruland, Kristine (New York, 1991), 73–94Google Scholar. On Venetian prohibitions, see Trivellato, Francesca, Fondamenta dei vetrai: Lavoro, tecnologia e mercato a Venezia tra Sei e Settecento (Rome, 2000), 37Google Scholar. On these dynamics of emulation, see also Reinert, Translating Empire; and Fusaro, Maria, Political Economies of Empire in the Early Modern Meditarranean: The Decline of Venice and the Rise of England, 1450–1700 (Cambridge, UK, 2015), 298CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The flow of technology went all ways, of course; for the example of Venice, see Berveglieri, Roberto, Inventori stranieri a Venezia, 1474–1788: Importazione di tecnologia e circolazione di tecnici artigiani inventori (Venice, 1995)Google Scholar.

27 Storm to Christensen, postmaster in Helsingør, 6 Oct. 1753, Copy book, PA 1.

28 Gaustad, Skål for Norge!, esp. 26–54. Books, of course, traveled as well, and Scandinavians were well aware of such classics of glassmaking as Antonio Neri's L’arte vetraia (Florence, 1612); see, for example, Samuel Schultze, Tal om glas-makeriet (Stockholm, 1762), 7–8.

29 Amdam, Hanisch, and Pharo, Vel blåst!, 13.

30 Based on calculations from the ledger 1751–1760, no. 3, PA 1.

31 Minutes, board of management, 19 June 1753, Moltke's archive, no. 21, private archive, National Archives, Copenhagen (hereafter Moltke's archive).

32 Storm to Wærn, 5 July 1754, Copy book, PA 1.

33 For an overview of the history of the city, see Synnøve Veinan Hellerud and Jan Messel, Oslo: A Thousand-Year History (Oslo, 2000).

34 Amdam, Hanisch, and Pharo, Vel blåst!, chap. 1.

35 For perspectives on this challenge in contemporary Europe, see Reinert, Sophus A., The Academy of Fisticuffs: Political Economy and Commercial Society in Enlightenment Italy (Cambridge, MA, 2018), 241–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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37 Ledgers, 1751–60, 1767–73, no. 3, PA 1.

38 Ekaterina Khaustova and Paul Sharp, “A Note on Danish Living Standards through Historical Wage Series, 1731–1913” (EHES Working Papers in Economic History, No. 81, July 2015), 6.

39 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:31, 60, 70.

40 “Convention of Foreining imellem de Herrer Particionater af the octrojerede norske Kompani,” in Christiansen, 1:35–41.

41 Calculated from the ledger 1767–1773, no. 3, PA 1.

42 Based on a systematic analysis of the Ledger 1767–1773, no. 3. On the Øresund dues, see Erik Gøbel, “Øresundstolden og dens regnskaber 1497–1857,” Årbog 2010 (Helsingør, 2010), 63.

43 Peter Friderich Suhm and Rasmus Nyerup, Nye Samlinger til den danske historie:vol. 2 (Copenhagen, 1793); Glamann and Oxenbøll, Studier, 86–88.

44 Calculated from the ledger 1767–1773, no. 3, PA. 1.

45 See, for example, Sverre Steen, Tidsrummet 1720 til omkring 1770, vol. 6, Det norske folks liv og historie gjennem tidene (Oslo, 1932), 190–196.

46 Ledger 1767–73, no. 3, PA 1.

47 For example, Christiansen, De gamle priviligerte norske glassverker, 1:150.

48 Storm, memo, 11 Mar. 1763, no. 21, Moltke's archive.

49 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:519.

50 J. O. Bro-Jørgensen, Axel Nielsen, and Historie Selskabet for Udgivelse af Kilder til Dansk, Tiden 1730–1820, vol. 2 (Copenhagen, 1975), 118–19. Otto D. Lütken in particular argued strongly for the reduction of prices of industry products to encourage the demand. See Økonomisk Magazin, no. 2 (1758).

51 Storm mentioned that the custom tariffs should be 40 percent for white glass if Norwegian glass should manage to compete with imported glass. See Supplikk, 26 May 1755, Copy book, PA 1.

52 Storm to Moltke, Copy book, PA 1.

53 Morten Wærn Promemoria 15 July 1772, XXI, 12 Finansarkivene, National Archives, Oslo (hereafter FA).

54 Amdam, Hanisch, and Pharo, Vel blåst!, 35. For context on the early period of the welfare state, see Anne-Lise Seip, Sosialhjelpstaten blir til: Norsk sosialpolitikk 1740–1920 (Oslo, 1984), esp. 34–51.

55 Arnŏst Klima “Glassmaking Industry and Trade in Bohemia in the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries,” Journal of European Economic History 13, no. 3 (1984): 512–20.

56 Forestilling no. 991/1750–53, KKf.

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59 From a 1787 announcement from the Royal Academy of Science (Kgl. Norske Videnskabers Selskab), quoted in Monica Aase, “Patrioter og Bønder: Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskabs arbeid med landbrukspremier 1772–1806” (master's thesis, University of Trondheim, 1987) 119; see also Bagge, Sverre and Mykland, Knut, Norge i dansketiden (Copenhagen, 1987), 243–44Google Scholar.

60 On this process more broadly, see Hutchison, Ragnhild, In the Doorway to Development: An Enquiry into Market Oriented Structural Changes in Norway, ca. 1750–1830 (Leiden, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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62 Supplikk, 26 May 1755, PA 1.

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65 Quoted in Storm to Brandt, 26 June 1757, Copy book, PA 1.

66 Storm to Wærn, 19 Oct. 1759, Copy book, PA 1.

67 Forestilling no. 43/1766, GTKf.

68 Forestilling no. 1/1762, 43/1766, GTKf.

69 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:112–13; Rasch, Dansk toldpolitik, 91.

70 See, on this debate, Sophus A. Reinert, “State Capitalisms Past and Present: The European Origins of the Developmental State,” in The Oxford Handbook of State Capitalism, eds. Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra et al. (Oxford, 2019), forthcoming.

71 Storm to Wærn, 18 Apr. 1760, Copy book, PA 1.

72 Forestilling no. 42/1760–61, GTKf.

73 Storm to the king, 23 Mar. 1760, Copy book, PA 1. Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:100.

74 Modellbok for Nøstetangens og Aas' produkter med prisangivelse, 1763, see https://media.digitalarkivet.no/view/32611/1

75 Sixty-seven percent of the payments of 136,497 Rd from 1761 to 1771 were paid in 1769–1770.

76 Newton Wærn, memo, 30 June 1776, XXI, 11.1 FA.

77 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:115.

78 Figure for 1769 based on the ledger 1767–1773, PA 1; 1776 figure based on, Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:272.

79 Amdam, Hanisch, and Pharo, Vel blåst!, 27.

80 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:104, 109, 124, 128, 131.

81 Benzon voted on the behalf of the king, and he and Storm controlled the majority of the shares. Newton Wærn, memo, 30 June 1776, XXI, 11.1, FA.

82 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:142.

83 Christiansen, 1:141.

84 Contract, XXI, 11.1, FA.

85 C. Anker to Overskattedir, 7 Sept. 1776, Copy book, PA 1.

86 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:88.

87 Forestilling no. 193/1793, Finanskollegiet, National Archives, Copenhagen (hereafter FK).

88 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 2:83–87

89 Bernt Anker, memo, 14 Apr. 1774, XXI, 11.1, FA.

90 C. Anker to Overskattedir, 7 Sept. 1776, Copy book, PA 1.

91 B. Anker, memo, 15 Apr. 1774, XXI, 11.1, FA.

92 Minutes, General Assembly 10 Dec 1774, XXI, 12. FA.

93 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:148.

94 Minutes, General Assembly, 24 Apr. 1776, XXI, 11.1, FA.

95 C. Anker, memo, 11 May 1784, Schimmelmann's papers concerning Handelskompagniet, FK.

96 Generlauditør Fleicher on behalf of Mrs. Riis and Mrs.Wærn, minutes, General Assembly, 27 June and 12 Dec. 1774, XXI, 11.1, FA. On December 10, 1774, the general assembly decided that if Bernt Anker's bid was not accepted, the glassworks should be sold.

97 Ledger 1767–1773, part II, fol. 16, no 3, PA 1.

98 Ingrid Hagen, Blåfargen fra Modum: En verdenshistorie; Blaafarveværket 1776–1821 (Oslo, 2014), 7.

99 P. Simonsen, memo, 6 Apr. 1778, XXI, 11.2, FA.

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103 Based on the ledger 1767–1773, PA 1.

104 C. Anker to Den Norske Fabrikdireksjon, 24 Aug. 1778, Copy book, Fabrikkdireksjonene, PA 1.

105 C. Anker, memo, 31 Jan. 1778; Den Norske Farbrikdireksjon to Calmeyer, 6 June 1778; both in Copy book, Fabrikkdireksjonene, PA 1.

106 C. Anker to P. Anker, 2 Sept. 1776, Copy book, Fabrikkdireksjonene, PA 1.

107 C. Anker, memo, 31 Jan. 1778; Den Norske Farbrikdireksjon to Calmeyer, 6 June 1778; both in Copy book, Fabrikkdireksjonene, PA 1.

108 Den Norske Fabrikdir. to Statsbalansedireksjonen, 7 July 1781, XXI, 11.2, FA.

109 H. Wexels statistics, Schimmelmann's papers, FK.

110 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 3:265–315.

111 Smith, Adam, Undersøgelse om National-Velstands Natur og Aarsag, trans. and ed. Dræby, Frants, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1779–1780)Google Scholar. Interestingly, Dræby included a translation of Thomas Pownall's critique of Smith—his A Letter from Governor Pownall to Adam Smith (London, 1776)—in the second volume. On his decision to do so, see Dræby, introduction to Smith, Undersøgelse, 1:v–vi.

112 On the majority of subscribers being Norwegian, see Smith, Undersøgelse, 1:iii.

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116 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:253.

117 The losses from 1776 to 1784 were between 6,000 Rd and 9,000 Rd annually. Calculation based on Forestilling no. 83, 1785, FK.

118 From 1787 to 1791, the state received 9,546 Rd on average annually, minus 4,942 Rd that was paid as export and production premium. Net profit was 4,602 Rd annually. Forestilling no. 137 and 193/1792, FK.

119 Forestilling no. 137/1792, FK.

120 Forestilling no. 83/1787, FK; see also Johansen, Dansk økonomisk politik, 254–259

121 Forestilling no. 106/1785, FK.

122 Christiansen, De gamle privilegerte norske glassverker, 1:187–88.

123 M. Wærn, memo, 15 July 1772, XXI, 12, FA.

124 “Octroj for handels- and kanalkompaniet,” no. 15, in Christiansen, De gamle priveligerte norske glassverker, 1:176.

125 Delib. Protocol 1782–84, no. 364, Handels- og Kanalkompaniets archive, National Archives, Copenhagen (hereafter HK).

126 Forestilling no. 83/1787, FK.

127 Forestilling no. 83/1787, FK.

128 Forestilling no. 83/1787, FK.

129 Storm to the king, 3 May 1760, Copy book, PA 1.

130 Barkley, Andreas Johann, Monopoliers skadelige Følger bevist ved Glas-Magazinets Omgang med Glasmester-Lauget I Kiøbenhavn (Copenhagen, 1788), 41Google Scholar.

131 Delib. Protocol 1782–84/ no. 237, HK.

132 Forestilling no. 83/1787, FK.

133 Rasch, Dansk toldpolitik, 208–9; Johansen, Dansk økonomisk politik, 188–89, 259.

134 Forestilling no. 83/1787, FK.

135 Forestilling no. 137/1792 and no. 60/1793, FK.

136 Amdam, Hanish and Pharo, Vel blåst!, 44–47.

137 Forestilling no. 162/1793, FK.

138 Bro-Jørgensen, Nielsen, and Selskabet for Udgivelse af Kilder til Dansk, Tiden 1730–1820, 2, 146–149. On such Fabian measures as the theoretical and practical mainstream of Enlightenment political economy, see Reinert, Translating Empire, 281–88. For a long-term perspective of the underlying mechanisms, and the dynamic and protean nature of such interventions, see Wade, Robert, “The Developmental State: Dead or Alive?,” Development and Change 49, no. 2 (2018): 518–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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141 Smith, Undersøgelse, 1:183.

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145 Anker's reliance on Smith may have been even more explicit. See Amdam, Hanisch, and Pharo, Vel blåst!, 54, drawing on Einar Mæhlum, “Statens glassverker under Carsten Ankers overbestyrelse 1819–1824” (master's thesis, University of Oslo, 1936), 36.

146 Stortingsforhandlinger 1821, 77–78.

147 Norsk biografisk leksikon, s.v. “Carsten Anker,” by Knut Mykland, https://nbl.snl.no/Carsten_Anker.

148 On this transition more broadly, see de Vries, Jan, The Industrious Revolution: Consumer Behavior and the Household Economy, 1650 to the Present (Cambridge, UK, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; on this era in Norwegian history, see Hutchison, Doorway to Development; on the granularity of commercial society at the time through a different lens, see Reinert, Academy of Fisticuffs, 11–15.

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150 For a similar perspective, see Harcourt, Bernard E., The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order (Cambridge, MA, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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158 On how “an idea about the way the world is organized can be so widely shared that it sinks into the semiconscious space of common sense,” see Kennedy, David, A World of Struggle: How Power, Law, and Expertise Shape Global Political Economy (Princeton, 2016), 23CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the dilemmas of common sense, see Rosenfeld, Sophia, Common Sense: A Political History (Cambridge, MA, 2011), 256–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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163 See Ringvej, Mona, Christian Frederiks tapte rike (Bergen, 2016), 20Google Scholar. On Norwegian patriotism before independence, see Lunden, Kåre, Norsk grålysning: Norsk nasjonalisme 1770–1814 (Oslo, 1992)Google Scholar; and Storsveen, Norsk patriotisme.

164 Reinert, Translating Empire, 282, 286. On the foundational tension between states and markets, see Hont, Istvan, Jealousy of Trade: International Competition and the Nation-State in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, MA, 2005), 155Google Scholar; and Reinert, Academy of Fisticuffs, 414–15n17.

165 This has already been noted eloquently by Drucker, Peter, “A Crisis of Capitalism: Who's in Charge? [1986],” in Managing for the Future (London, 2011), 237Google Scholar. The problem of short-termism resulting from “shareholder value thinking” has generated a cottage industry in recent years, but see, for example, Stout, Lynn, The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public (San Francisco, 2012)Google Scholar, esp. 2.