Concession laws

The concession laws were adopted after a lengthy political struggle and were intended to prevent large foreign companies from buying up and controlling hydropower and other Norwegian natural resources.

[3] The concession laws were a dominant topic in Norwegian politics from the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905 to the First World War.

Increasingly more people became aware that waterfalls and rivers, referred to as "white coal" (Norwegian: hvitt kull), could be developed to produce electricity.

[4] Water resources director Gunnar Sætren was also connected with waterfall speculation and was extensively criticized for having given a map of the catchment areas in Norway to Swedish capital interests, as a result of which he left his position in 1907.

The development of natural resources in private hands was to revert to the state free of charge after a period of 60 to 80 years, with no other form of compensation to the owners.

All parties were required to allow the Norwegian authorities to act as an intermediary in the public interest that could impose conditions on the acquisition of natural resources.