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1645.]
Public revenue
State of Norway.
CHRISTINA. THE REGENCY. Description of the
other provinces. 3!7
The revenues of Denmark, ordinary and extra-
ordinary, accrue from six main heads: 1. the Sound
toll, wliich is very unequal ;
before the last war
with Sweden it amounted to 5 or ()00,000 rix-dol-
lars ;
after the peace of Bromsebro, it was dimi-
nished by the immunities of the Swedes and Hol-
landers to 70 or 80,000 rix-dollars. 2. The land-tolls
or excise, which would be considerable, if the nobi-
lity and clergy were not exempted therefrom, and
if the nobles did not exempt the burgesses with
whom they have dealings ;
for nothing is more
usual than that a nobleman, when he lodges with
a burgess, should defray his charges with excise
schedules. 3. Tallages, and contributions of the
towns. 4. Fiefs, towns, and tolls in Norway.
5. Fiefs in Denmark. 6. Crown taxes, and other
extraordinary revenues, which are not paid every
year. Generally the revenues cannot at pi’esent
be computed at more than 500,000 rix-dollars ;
on the other hand, the expenditure of the kingdom
amounts to 919,665 rix-dollars*.
Norway has very fair corn-fields and meadows
between the mountains, with forests of oak, fir,
birch, pine, and some box-wood, from which the
Hollanders procure masts, timber, tar, and deals in
some hundred ships yearly ;
it possesses also va-
rious mines, and might have more, if private inte-
rests hindered not, on the part of the nobility in
Denmark, which sees not gladly the sovereign
drawing much from Norway, and on that of the
miners, who believe that new pits injure the old
works. The character and maimers of the inhabit-
ants agree with those of the Swedes. With the king
and the government of Denmark they are not par-
ticularly well satisfied ;
for since all fiefs and
offices are mostly filled with Danes, and the king
seldom comes thither, great injustice is done to the
inhabitants. The nobility in Norway are well-nigh
wholly extirpated, and those who remain enjoy no
respect in Denmark, excepting some families which
have been naturalized. Otherwise there is an
abundant population of a vigorous and lusty stock,
very capable for war and navigation, so that the
Hollanders employ and esteem this nation before
others. There is hardly a ship in the service of the
States-general in which there are not some Norse-
men. Norway is governed by a lieutenant, a lord
* Of legal procedure and the condition of the church the
following is stated: The four inferior courts are called
home-courts ; the birke-ting or hamlet-court, the herreiis-
ting or hundred court, the by-ting or town-court, and the
court of the council-chamber. The latter may be held by
the town-bailiff, or burgomaster and council in the council-
house. The birke-ting is a separate court in a certain dis-
trict, which the king or the nobility may appoint, and In it
the bailiff and clerk must be sworn. When the birke-ting is
held, the bailiff summons eight good men of the same dis-
trict, whomsoever he will, yet honourable and of good repute,
who shall sit in court and bear testimony to the bailiff that
he judges rightly ;
after which the sentence is to be entered
in the court-book. These eight assessors are not sworn.
The hundred-court is held in the hundred by its bailiff and
clerk, with eight court-men, peasants of the same hundred,
who must all be sworn ;
and these eight court-men, like the
eight in the birke-ting, are to witness that the judge dooms
rightly, and that all is correctly entered in the hundred-
book by the clerk. Froin these four courts, how great or
small soever the cause may be, an appeal lies to the lands-
ting. These are established in four towns, Copenhngen,
Malmoe, Odensee, and Ribe. The judge of each province is
appointed by the king, invariably from the nobility. The
bailiff of the hundred is appointed by the governor of the
of the Danish council, who has his residence in
Christiania. Hannibal Sehestedt took the title of
vice-king, and received from Christian IV. his fief
in freehold, which produced to him 30,000 rix-
dollars yearly. He also during his stay in Norway
erected colleges after the Swedish fashion, espe-
cially for the admiralty and war, the chancery,
treasury, and the mines ;
but as the administra-
tion of Norway in such sort was too widely sepa-
rated from that of Denmark, all this, after king
Christian’s death and Sehestedt’s process, was abro-
gated. The main cause of Hannibal’s fall was that he
made a more gallant figure than the remainder of
the Danish nobles. He had one of the daughters of
Christian IV. to wife ;
therefore the nobility were
jealous of him, and it was necessary to ruin him,
together with the other sons-in-law of king Christian,
who, in the time of this sovereign, had divided the
whole government among themselves, namely, Cor-
fitz Ulfeldt, as high steward in Denmark, and Pentz
and Hannibal Sehestedt as vice-kings or lieutenants,
the one in Holstein, the other in Norway*.
Scania and Bleking are two of the principal pro-
vinces in the kingdom of Denmark, renowned for
good grain, cattle, and fisheries, noble forests, fair
pastures, stately rivers and lalies. The people, es-
pecially on the frontiers, resemble most the sub-
jects of your majesty in Smaland, as well in speech
as humour; and since they, when any thing springs
up on the Swedish side, must bear the heaviest
burden, and lie as it were in the wolf’s mouth,
many wish themselves under the crown of Sweden.
This people is in Denmark esteemed better adapted
for war than that of Zealand, Fyen, and Jutland, is
also more handy and somewhat more practised in
the management of arms. The population of Zea-
land is both in speech and humour very different
from that of Norway, Scania, and Bleking, is by
nature addicted to ease, inapt for war, and like as
in the remaining provinces of Denmark, discon-
tented with the government and the nobility, which
here has too great an ascendant. In Fyen, Laaland,
Falster, and Langeland the population resembles
most that of Zealand. Jutland is, next to Nor-
way, the greatest province of Denmark, has abun-
dance of rye and corn, good cattle, fisheries, forests,
and excellent pastures. The people are by nature
province. The baronial diet is the last resort, namely,
that court which the king with his whole council forms, and
before which every provincial judge has to make answer.
The sentence is pronounced by the high chancellor, and
drawn up by the secretary of state.—In Denmark bishops
and superintendents are the chief persons in ecclesiastical
affairs, according to the ordinance of Odensee. The bishops
are contirmed by the king, but appointed by the clergy.
They may ordain clergy, but neither call (vocera) nor select
them (whether church-pastors or capellans), which privilege
is reserved to the congregations or patrons ; nor can any
bishop deprive a minister, except ad interim, for that be-
longs to the baronial diet. Regal benefices depend on the
king alone. For the rest, the bishops have the right of
yearly visiting the parishes, and have superintendence over
the revenues of the churches, the schools, hospitals, and por-
tion of the poor, and can also, where disputes and errors
occur, decide according to the Ordinance for the Church.
The colleges of Denmark, especially that of Copenhagen,
have their separate privileges, large and liberal, so that the
highly learned constitute a class by themselves, together with
the clergy, with which the king and council have to make
terms, when any burden is to be imposed on the order.
’ All the wives of these noblemen were natural daughters
of Christian IV. by Christina Munk.
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