Avhandlingen tar for seg den tidlige fasen i Norges Banks virksomhet, hovedsakelig de første norske lovene om bank- og pengevesenet i 1816. Fokuset ligger på de rettslige sidene ved utlåns- og diskonteringsvirksomheten til Norges Bank i perioden fra bankens opprettelse til 1824. Norges første bank ble lovpålagt å fungere som en låneinstitusjon, og bistå privatpersoner med både lån og diskontering av veksler og vekselobligasjoner. Det sistnevnte hører for det meste til fortiden, og har dermed en historisk verdi. Avhandlingen går gjennom de rettslige bestemmelsene som direkte regulerer utlån og diskontering til privatpersoner, for å gi et overblikk over de vilkår og hensyn som lovgiveren forutsatte. Som avhandlingen også vil avdekke, var det ikke alltid at lovbestemmelsene ble fulgt i sin helhet. Tolkning ble benyttet for å rettferdiggjøre sin praksis.
English summary
Norges Bank, the central bank of Norway, has since its establishment by law in 1816, always been an important supporting pillar in Norwegian society. Norway’s independence in 1814, and the following union with Sweden, encouraged the creation of the bank, through a new Constitutional section 110.
Laws, created by new parliamentary legislature, were created in order to satisfy the growing need for credit in society. This thesis reviews the laws that controlled the lending- and discounting activities of Norges Bank in the period from 1816 to 1824. The first monetary- and banking laws from 1816 created the foundation for the bank’s lending activities, through a framework of rules, which Parliament had supervision over.
In the beginning the bank was created as a private share bank, and the implementation of its rules was entrusted, in practice, to the bank’s managers. The needs and opportunities of people, who wished to borrow money, were not always in accordance with the laws or the lending situation that the bank itself established.
In addition to an overview of the laws, the thesis presents a brief comparison with the credit-regulating laws during the Norwegian union with Denmark, which was highly inspirational in the structuring of Norwegian lending laws. The alteration of the laws in 1818 and 1824, and the regulations created by the bank’s managers in 1820, are also reviewed.
The thesis is a part of the legal history research project, connected to the 200th anniversary of Norges Bank in 2016.