"Efter ethvert steds særdeles omstændigheder". Politi og lokalsamfund under den danske enevælde.

Resumé

’In accordance with the particular circumstances of each place’: Police and the local community during Danish absolutism In early modern France, Germany and Scandinavia the term ‘police’ referred to a set of ordinances about everything from extravagant consumption to vagrants, the price of victuals, the guilds, sanitation and fire-prevention. Traditionally, the police legislation has been interpreted as a tool of ‘social discipline’ and state building ‘from above’. However, since the 1990s, German-speaking historians have argued that ‘police’ was as much influenced by the demands of subjects and local communities as the interests of the absolutist rulers. Inspired by this discussion, this article finds evidence of local and popular influence on the police administration of the Danish market town of Aalborg during absolutism. Even after the establishment of a royal police office in 1682, the municipal government continued to dominate police administration, claiming to promote the welfare of the citizens. The citizens typically demanded ‘good police’ to protect their trade privileges, to keep the market supplied with foods at fair prices, and a clean and safe environment. ‘Police’ was primarily concerned with the welfare of towns, and thus the royal revenues from the urban trades. A country police wasn’t established until 1791, after agrarian reforms had ‘urbanized’ the countryside by giving peasants the status of citizens.