Kjobstad is an old scandinavian

Scandinavians

Scandinavians are a group of Germanic peoples, inhabiting Scandinavia and to a lesser extent countries associated with Scandinavia, and speaking Scandinavian languages. The group includes Danes, Norwegians and Swedes, and additionally the descendants of Scandinavian settlers such as the Icelandic...

 term for "Market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

" notably Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

. Kjobstad's were places of trade

Trade

Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

 and exporting materials (e.g. timber, flour, iron and other common goods). Towns were given the "dignity

Dignity

Dignity is a term used in moral, ethical, and political discussions to signify that a being has an innate right to respect and ethical treatment. It is an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inalienable rights...

" or rank of being referred to as Kjobstad's when they reached a certain population and had established means of industry and township

Township

The word township is used to refer to different kinds of settlements in different countries. Township is generally associated with an urban area. However there are many exceptions to this rule. In Australia, the United States, and Canada, they may be settlements too small to be considered urban...

 (e.g. dock yards, steam mills, iron works, churches, grammar schools). A ladested, small seaport or "Charge Venue" were smaller towns with limited privileges compared to Kjobstad's. In Kjobstad's citizens were able to buy and sell goods and conduct other economic activities. Kjobstads date back to the 12th century when the king sought to have commerce

Commerce

While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...

 centralized around specific towns that offered strategic significance, providing a local economic base for construction of fortifications and population for defense of the area. It also served to restrict Hanseatic League

Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...

merchants from trading in areas other than those designated. Norwegian “market towns” died out and were replaced by free markets in the 19th century. Following 1952 both the “small seaport” and the “market town” were given simple town status.

Sources

• Norway: illustrated handbook for travellers, edited by Christian Tonsberg~TONSBERG,1875
• A Revolution from Above: The Power State of 16th and 17th Century Scandinavia, edited by Leon Jesperson~Odense University Press,Denmark,2000
• Google books