| From Duty to Industri
| | It wasn´t until 1882, when Elsinore Iron Shipyard was opened that development picked up speed and from here on you could really talk of an industrial breakthrough.
The shipyard with Mads Holm leading it involved extensive investments, an increased mechanization and a great need for labour. Around 700 workers were employed in the beginning and of them 300 from abroad. |
Elsinore
“Take a town like Hillerød... No, leave it; but take Elsinore! A small, strange nest, isn’t it? Pressed together under tall hills along the sea, which lifts Kronborg imposingly on a shield, Kronborg, which seems to crush both church and town hall and the new railway station.
A jolly town, with a “salty “ mark on its inhabitants and buildings. Everything smells of the sea – the town has serves a small area and has to trust itself. It has done so in spite of the ups and downs of fate. What Marsk Stig and the Hanseatic towns and the Swedes, the plague and fires has been able to do, has been done; the town has endured – until the year 1857, where the Sound Duty was banned. That was a blow – and that in the time of my romantic s boyhood and holiday. Then the cheerful town suddenly changed its look – the old houses crumbled down – the large families split up – the upstarts gloated in secret; and often I stopped in the narrow street, to where the eastern wing of Hotel d´Øresund faces, and philosophically read the old inscription on the stones in the wall:
Manchem verdrueht, es, was er sieht,
Und muss doch leiden, das geschieht.
Now the town has pulled itself together, or is on its way. The position is excellent, the harbour is superb, the energy lifts its head – the future belongs to the big iron ship- and machine shipyard, which gives work to many hands, feeds the many mouths. There is keen competition with the capital, and something “edgy” has taken its place alongside the salt. You can feel it politically, socially, commercially; there is movement in the old nest, and no matter how conservative the town is, the breeze from the sea sweeps in and puts the mind and thoughts in motion. Nowhere in the world the flags are flown so often as in Elsinore. Stengade smartens itself up at any opportunity – the garrison remembers any little feat – but these waving flags are also the expression of the decorative traditions of the population. But the great days of the custom-house are never forgotten, when the money rolled and champagne corks popped loudly. They have their saga to live on – and it gives them an appetite to show off. The melancholy is washed down with Wiibroe ale – they lick their lips and think: The champagne will come again!”
With this description Holger Drachmann characterizes the development, which took place in Elsinore in the course of the 19th century, the transformation from Sound Duty town to modern industrial town.
Elsinore 1859 | 
The Old Pharmacy |
Elsinore new Town Hall
Elsinore new Town Hall was finished in 1855. Previously it had been the object of a heated debate, which wasn´t or isn´t unusual, when major changes were on the agenda. The reason for the new building was that the old town hall from the 16th century was in need of a renovation of the jail. On the way they realized that a rebuildig like that required that the old town hall had to be demolished.
The debate was whether the new Town Hall should be built in Axeltorv.
Finally the new Town Hall was built where the old one had been, but they didn´t avoid the budget excesses, known from the the present time.
Had they known in 1854/55 that the Sound Duty would disappear just two years later, the town probably wouldn´t have had such an impressive building.
Elsinore Town Hall 1830 | 
Elsinore Town Hall 1855 | 
Elsinore Town Hall 2007 |
For more than 400 years the town’s life and development had been closely linked to the trade and the administration, which was brought on by the Sound Duty. With the abolition of the Sound Duty in 1857 a new epoch in the history of the town was ushered in.
In spite of the sudden transition, which was marked by the banishment of the Sound Duty, it was a change, which had been underway for a long time. As early as the end of the 18th century people tried to start larger enterprises on private initiative, often in conflict with the influential interests of the guilds. Individuals like the Englishman J.D. Balfour and J.J. Claessen were pioneers, who also invented new production methods, but the big plans of starting the shipyard did not come off, and an enlargement of the harbour paid by the state did not start before the 1820´s and was mostly to the benefit of the activities, which was attached to the custom-house.
The First Industries
The first real industrial enterprise with a high degree of mechanisation and division of labour was a gasworks, built in 1853 by the Danish Gas Company, backed by English capital and technology. Second to Odense it was the first gas works in the country, originally intended to renew the street lighting, but in the course of time it also supplied the private and business sector. The gas works was placed in the Grønnehave neighbourhood, which together with the town centre developed into an industrial centre. Here the town’s new waterworks was built and it replaced a plant, which dated all the way back to Frederik 2. In the present Højstrup Godthåb glassworks was situated from 1848 to 1895. Godthåb glassworks and other industries later came to the area. In general this was the first phase of the industrial process, from the end of the 1840´s to the middle of the 1850´s. The development is characterized by some new plants (glassworks, gasworks, tileworks and breweries, and an industry count from the year 1855 showed businesses with 354 employees, of these 20 businesses with more than 6 employees.
In the town middle a number of new industrial plants were started. Among other things Carl Wiibroe started as early as 1851 to brew Bavarian beer, which he stored in the casemates in Kronborg castle. In 1862 he bought the site by the harbour, where the remains of the brewery now lay opposite Hestemøllestræde, and where he in 1878 built storerooms and installed engine power. Carl Wiibroe was also very active in the public life, as early as 1842 he was elected to the municipal council, where he became chairman several times around.
Another entrepreneur in the town centre was Jens Levin Tvede, who transformed a small distillery in Sudergade to a manufacturing business in Stjernegade, where he made spirits, snaps, yeast and household beer. He was also contributory to the fact that the telephone came into use in Elsinore around 1880. J.L. Tvede was elected town council man in 1857.
Glass Hut | 
Wiibroe Beer | 
Tvede´s Factories |
The End of the Duty 1857
In order to lighten the transition from the banishment of the Sound Duty Elsinore got a special appropriation, all in all a sum of 60.000 rix-dollars, which was partly used to the support of the laying out of Marienlyst Seaside Hotel. More important was the enlargement of the harbour in 1862, at which the custom house almost symbolically disappears. With the freedom of trade law the guilds disappeared and gradually also the market town zone, which contributed to the protection of production and trade in a circumference of approximately 15 kilometres. In 1864 the north railway opened with 60.000 passengers a year and a direct link to Copenhagen via Hillerød.
The Railway Station | 
The North Railway | 
The North Railway |
Stagnation
In spite of these enterprises there was a decline in industry and the increase in the industry census until 1975 was very modest. At this time there were 37 businesses with a total of 478 employees, corresponding to approximately 5% of the labour force. The increase happened in the provision business (spirits, beer, margarine). In the town centre the predominant business were smaller trade businesses.
Even though Elsinore, apart from Copenhagen was the most important industrial town in Zealand, it was still very modest and towards the end of the 1870´s the development stagnated.
This could be linked to the dominant trade life of the town concentrated its efforts on increasing its trade by sea and therefore invested large sums in trade ships, mostly sailing ships. When the steamships gained ground it turned out to be a bad investment, moreover, the development also resulted in fewer ships berthed at Elsinore, and that caused an important basis of the town’s trade life disappeared.
The harbour enlargement in 1862 was not comprehensive enough and plans to make Elsinore an emporium for the Baltic Sea trade did not come off. Around 1889 the town with its 8.978 (1906: 14.534) inhabitants was in fact declining.
The Skipbuilding Yard 1882
Not until 1882, when the Elsinore Iron Ship and Machine Yard was built, the development started to turn and from then on a real industrial breakthrough was happening. The laying out with Mads Holm in the front brought with it large investments, increased mechanization and a large need for manpower. Around 700 workers were employed in the enterprise, of these approximately 300 from abroad.
The harbour was enlarged once again and in 1883 the first new ship was launched, the propeller steamship S/S Elsinore and with it approximately 1000 employees and many subcontractors the shipyard became the dominant factor in the economical development of the town towards the 1880´s.
The Harbour | 
Elsinore Shipyard | 
Workers from the Shipyard’s Forge | 
Kierulf´s Iron Foundry | 
Elsinore Weaving Mill |
Oversæt |
Infrastructure
Another important factor concerning the industrial revolution was the establishment of infrastructure, which connected North Zealand to the metropolitan area. The sea route was there, of course, but in 1864 the north railway was opened with connection to Copenhagen via Hillerød. The transportation of goods from the terminus to the town centre was done via a horse drawn line and from this the name “Trækbanen”.
Out of fear of competition from the capital there was local resistance against the establishment of the North railway and the Coast railway, which was opened in 1897. With the opening of the Hornbæk railway in 1906 a substantial improvement of the area’s infrastructure was the result with better connections to the surrounding area, among other things cloth is transported from Hellebæk, tile from Ålsgårde and paper from Havreholm. The transport development was to some extent also a result of the transformation of the area to a recreational area for the metropolitan region. And to some extent, this is still the case.
The sea trade´s fear that the new communications would certain parts of the trade transport was well-founded and with the final lifting of protection zones around the market town in 1920, the time where obstacles were put in the way of the free trade, was finally over.
Around the turn of the century the most important factors for the industrial development was provided: First of all with the establishment of the shipyard, the necessary capital and investments and labour, which also came to the town, an extension of the infrastructure and the lifting of earlier days´ restrictions on production and trade. With the establishment of Elsinore Technical School in 1885, a modern education of the work force was also begun.
The New Station for the Coast Railway | 
Oversæt | 
Oversæt | 
The Railway Terrain |
The Development of the Trade Union Movement
With the beginning industrialization and the removal of the guilds the first attempt to establish a trade union was made in Elsinore. The first attempts took place inside the earlier guild-organized skilled trades in the beginning of the 1870´s, but the economic decline around 1876 stopped further developments. The first lasting unionisation took place among the printers in 1881 and in connection with the establishment of the shipyard there were other efforts. An economic crisis in the middle of the 1880´s brought about another setback, but the establishment of the Social Democratic Society in the summer of 1885, the Union of Smiths and Mechanics in 1887 and the Common Union and Workers´ Society in Elsinore of 1888, became the basis of a more lasting and united organisation.
It is evident that the changing market conditions, especially for the shipbuilding business, had a great impact on the development. This was also evident into the 1890´s and not until the middle of the 1890´s the cooperative union carried through agreements for several of the trades in the shipyard.
In 1892 the gardener Christian Hansen was elected to the town council as the first Social Democratic council member in the country and in 1894 the Social Democrats had three members elected to the town council through a joint electoral list with the Venstre-party.
Agreements and Conflicts
A final arrangement about the entering of agreements was not reached until 1896, after a comprehensive union conflict in the shipyard. It started with the lockout of the riveters and involved 900 employees. It was a major conflict according to the times, and it took a fortnight of negotiations to reach an agreement about a wage increase and a three-year agreement and the establishment of a fixed negations system, where the cooperative union negotiated on the behalf of the trades.
The negotiation results of the shipyard and their wage rates became pacesetting, but in 1899 an extensive and 3 months long conflict broke out in Elsinore, but it did not include the shipyard. The Cooperative Union had effortlessly negotiated an agreement, which involved the reduction of the working hours from 60 to 58 hours and abolished the hated fine system, which was in the shipyard’s working regulations. In 1888 the town only had 7 trade unions with less than 300 members. Around the turn of the century there were 32 unions with approximately 1800 members.
The Conditions of Life
Around the turn of the century a worker made around 15-20 kroner a week. In itself that does not say much, but unfortunately there are no surveys from Elsinore concerning the budgets and conditions of life of working families. If you compare to other places in the country, it is plausible that 25% of the income went to house rent and the rest went to food, fuel and clothes in that order.
Money was scarce and in addition they had to pay for insurance against illness, death and burial. Apart from the poor-law authorities and a pension reform in 1891 the public security system did not exist and it became an important task for the labour movement to deal with these things – also locally. In that connection they established a sick-benefit association in 1892 for the members of the
Cooperative Union.
The Cooperation
A method to reduce expenses in the daily necessities and deprive the capitalists of their dominant influence on production lies in the cooperative idea. The farmer’s cooperatives from the 1889´s, which were inspired by the English workers´ cooperative wholesale societies, could have been the inspiration, but the cooperative idea has deep roots in the labour movement. In short, the idea was by producing jointly, buying and distributing different goods and services, they were able to do it as cheaply as possible, without the expensive intermediaries and to the good of all.
The first example of cooperative wholesale in Elsinore was the establishment of “the Workers´ Coal Supplies” in 1892, but later many initiatives came along for cooperative operations and social security. |