municipalities () and 65 city municipalities () in Norway. Among the city municipalities, 43 had the status of market town (kjøpstad) and 22 were recognized harbors for export/import (ladested). Norway included a subordinate category to the market town, the "small seaport" (lossested or ladested), which was a port or harbor with a monopoly to import and export goods and materials in both the port and for a surrounding outlying district. Typically, these were locations for exporting timber and importing grain and goods. Local farm goods and timber sales were all required to pass through merchants at either a lading place or a market town prior to export. This incentive ensured that local trading went through local merchants, a technique which was so effective in limiting smuggling that customs revenues increased from less than 30% of the total tax revenues in 1600 to more than 50% of the total taxes by 1700. During the last half of the 20th century, the distinction between the different types of municipalities was decreased, and in 1992, legislation eliminated all distinctions. Now, all municipalities () are simply municipalities. List of districts This is a list of the districts that were initially created on 1 January 1838. The original spellings have been used (many spellings have changed since that time. For a present list of current municipalities, see the List of municipalities of Norway. References Political history of Norway 1837 in Norway 1838 introductions