MAKING SPACE WITH MEDICINE

Abstract

This paper explores a little‐known aspect of Norway's ‘closed‐fist’ policy and union history that played a role in the fate of the Union Trade Act during the dissolution of Norway's union with Sweden, namely the controversy over livestock trade. By way of this controversy and the establishment of Norwegian veterinary services the paper points to the way in which statistics and veterinary medicine may act as a form of political technology. In this case it took part in producing a national territory. Hence, science took part in carving a way out of the union. Theoretically, what the paper argues is the importance of studying economic and political history in combination with the history of science.

Notes

1. See e.g., Gjerdåker, Norges landbrukshistorie III 1814‐1920, 179, Sejersted, “Den svensk‐norske unions betydning for den økonomisk utvikling, spesielt i Norge,” 239 and 241 and Stråth, Union og demokrati. Dei sameinte rike Noreg‐Sverige 1814–1905, 332–359.

2. Hagemann, Det moderne gjennombrudd 1870–1905, Aschehougs Norgeshistorie and Alf Kaartvedt in volume I of the history of Norwegian foreign policy. Both connect the repeal of the Union Trade Act directly to conflicts associated with the Norwegian demand for its own consulate services, where Norway softened its ‘closed‐fist’ policy after threats of war from Sweden. ‘The Liberal Party […] cancelled its joint consulate services effective July 1, 1896. Sweden responded by repealing the trade agreement on May 1, 1895, and under the threat of war forced the Liberals and Norway to the negotiating table’. Bjørgo, Rian and Kaartvedt, Selvstendighet og union. Fra middelalderen til 1905, 349.

3. Asdal, Politikkens teknologier. Produksjoner av regjerlig natur.

4. Departementstidende no 10–11, 7 March 1894.

5. See the history of the Danish veterinary college: Bendixen, Omkring 200‐året for opprettelsen av Den kongelige Veterinærskole den 13. juli 1773.

6. Horne, Træk av veterinærvæsenets historie i Norge.

7. According to Aftenposten , no. 900 December 22, 1896, ‘Mellemrigsloven og husdyrfragten’.

8. This, however, does not imply independent from administration and government. On the contrary, Norwegian veterinary expertise, including laboratory research, became administratively linked to government, from 1900 this implies the Ministry of Agriculture. See Asdal, Grensetafikk. Nedslag i matpolitikkens og veterinærvesenets historie.

9. Norges officielle statistikk. Tredie række no. 153. Beretning om Veterinærvæsenet i Norge for året 1890. (Kristiania 1892).

10. Malm, “Uddrag af Dr. O. Malms Indberetning til Justitsdepartementet, forsaavidt hans Indstilling om Veterinærsagens Ordning angaar,” 86–87.

11. Tveite, Stein, Jord og gjerning. Trekk av norsk landbruk i 150 år. Oslo, 1959.

12. Malm, “Uddrag af Dr. O. Malms Indberetning til Justitsdepartementet, forsaavidt hans Indstilling om Veterinærsagens Ordning angaar,” 86–87.

13. Departementstidende no 10–11, 7de Marts 1894, p. 146.

14. As described in Malm's recommendation, p. 160 in Departementstidende no 10–11, 7de Marts 1894.

15. Ibid.

16. Departementstidende no 10–11, 7de Marts 1894, 161.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid.152.

19. Aftenposten , no. 900 December 22, 1896, ‘Mellemrigsloven og husdyrfragten’. For the explicit link between the controversy over trade in livestock and the Union Trade Act, see also Aftenposten no. 24 14.1.94. ‘Svenskene og kvægimportforbudet’ and Verdens Gang 16.1.94. ‘Kvægforbudet’.

20. Sejersted, “Den svensk‐norske unions betydning for den økonomisk utvikling, spesielt i Norge,” 234.

21. Norges officielle statistikk Tredie række no. 153. Beretning om veterinærvæsenet i Norge for året 1890 . 51.

22. Horne, Træk av veterinærvæsenets historie i Norge, 208.

23. Malm, “Uddrag af Dr. O. Malms Indberetnng til Justitsdepartementet, forsaavidt hans Indstilling om Veterinærsagens Ordning angaar.”

24. Ole O. Malm, ibid. 88.

25. Ole O. Malm, ibid.

26. Ole O. Malm, ibid.

27. Annotation to the signing April 2, 1892 Norges officielle statistikTredie række no. 153. Beretning om veterinærvæsenet i Norge for året 1890, 51

28. Horne, Træk av veterinærvæsenets historie i Norge, 201.

29. Departementstidende no 10–11, March 7, 150

30. Sejersted, “Den svensk‐norske unions betydning for den økonomisk utvikling, spesielt i Norge”, Bjørgo, Rian and Kaartvedt, Selvstendighet og union. Fra middelalderen til 1905.

31. Sejersted, “De nye menn i 90‐årenes politikk”, 257.

32. Departementstidende no 10–11, March 7, 1894, 150.

33. Bjørgo, Rian and Kaartvedt, Ibid, p. 343.

34. Sejersted, Francis, “De nye menn i 90‐årenes politikk,” 236.

35. Aftenposten , no. 900 December 22, 1896, ”Mellemrigsloven og husdyrfragten”.

36. Sth. Med. No. 9 (1897) “Forhandlinger angaaende en Lov om Norges og Sveriges gjensidige Handel og Søfart.”

37. In short, the conflict revolved around the issue of tariffs, as the Norwegian delegation argued the right to put tariffs on natural products, including livestock. This was opposed by the Swedish delegation, which argued that Swedish agriculture would then have close to no benefits from a Union Trade Act. Ibid. 3–14. The Norwegian stance should probably be seen in relation to the ‘mood’ in Norway after 1893 of increasing support for protectionism, especially after the repeal of the Union Trade Act. See Hovland, “Den forhenværende nødstilstand. Bønder, organisasjon og tollbeskyttelse 1893–1905.”

38. Sth. Med . No.9. (1897.) ‘Forhandlinger angaaende en Lov om Norges og Sveriges gjensidige Handel og Søfart,’ Ibid, § 1, 8.

39. Ibid, Bilaga I, Utkast till öfverensstemmelse angaende hva iakttagas bör till förekommanda af smittosam husdjurssjukdoms införande från det ena af de förenade rikena till det andra.

40. Aftenposten , no. 900 December 22, 1896, ”Mellemrigsloven og husdyrfragten”.

41. Sth. Med. No. 9. (1897.), 53.

42. Ibid.

43. Departementstidende no 10–11, March 7, 1894.

44. Aftenposten , no. 900 December 22, 1896, ‘Mellemrigsloven og husdyrfragten’.

45. Horne, Træk av veterinærvæsenets historie i Norge, 201.

46. Aftenposten , no. 900 December 22, 1896, “Mellemrigsloven og husdyrfrakten”.

47. Torp, “Malm, Ole Olsen,” 47–52.

48. On the point of seeing medicine and politics together in this period see e.g Otis, Membranes: Metaphors of Invasion in Nineteenth‐Century Literature, Science and Politics.

49. Malm, “Uddrag af Dr. O. Malms Indberetning til Justitsdepartementet, forsaavidt hans Indstilling om Veterinærsagens Ordning angaar,” 86–87.

50. Malm, O., “Om Veterinærvæsenets Stilling og Udsigter hos os,” 44.

51. An English translation of the article ‘Governmentality’ can be found with an introduction to this research tradition in Burchell, Gordon and Miller (eds), The Foucault Effect. Studies in Governmentality. See also Foucault, Naissance de la clinique: une archéologie du régard medical. Désrosieres, The politics of large numbers, a history of statistical reasoning.

52. Foucault, Michel, ‘Governmentality’.

53. This can be linked to studies of how expertise played an increasingly important role in government during the second half of the 19th century, see Benum, Sentraladministrasjonens historie bind 2 1845–1884 and Jacobsen, Knut Dahl, Teknisk hjelp og politisk struktur. En studie av norsk landbruksforvaltning 1874–1899. See also Elvbakken, Offentlig kontroll av næringsmidler, Institusjonalisering, apparat og tjenestemenn.

54. Malm, “Beretning fra Det Veterinær‐Pathologiske laboratorium i Kristiania”.

55. Malm, “Uddrag af Dr. O. Malms Indberetning til Justitsdepartementet, forsaavidt hans Indstilling om Veterinærsagens Ordning angaar,” 89–90.

56. Malm, ibid.

57. Woods, “The Construction of an Animal Plague: Foot and Mouth Disease in Nineteenth‐century Britain.” See also Woods, A Manufactured Plague? The History of Foot and Mouth Disease in Britain.

58. In Woods's view, this is how foot and mouth disease becomes more a product of social or cultural negotiation than it is a product of history and a result of a material, medical, or technical change in the of the disease. See also the International Encyclopedia of Veterinary Medicine Vol II and Henderson, “A historical review of the control of foot and the control of foot and mouth disease,” 3–9.

59. Departements‐Tidende no 10–11, March 7, 1894.