Editing Blaafarveværket (section)

===The Benecke–Wegner era===
[[File:Haugfossen.JPEG|thumb|Haugfossen]]
[[File:Fyrsettingsstoll.JPEG|thumb|Mines]]
[[File:Botkerverkstedet.JPEG|thumb|Bøtkerverkstedet ([[Cooper (profession)|cooper]] workshop)]]

During the [[Napoleonic Wars]] the royal company was pledged by the king as security for a loan, and when the state could not redeem the pledge after the Napoleonic Wars, it was taken over by the bankruptcy estate of the Swedish businessman Peter Wilhelm Berg, and sold at a public auction to a group of investors led by the prominent Berlin banker [[Wilhelm Christian Benecke von Gröditzberg|Wilhelm Christian Benecke]] (since ennobled as Baron Benecke). The purchase, officially in the name of a Christiania-based merchant who acted as a [[strawman]], was orchestrated by Benecke's young associate [[Benjamin Wegner]], who came to Norway to evaluate the company and buy it if he saw fit. After few years Benecke and Wegner formally acquired all the shares, and the company legally operated as Benecke & Wegner. Wegner also took over as director-general (CEO), a position he held from 1822 until 1849. During Benecke and Wegner's ownership, the company saw a large expansion and became the largest company in the country. It employed more than 2,000 workers, and in its peak supplied 80 percent of the world market for cobalt pigments. Wegner also instituted many important social reforms for the workers.