Property exchanges

Several medieval charters mention property exchanges. The term is also used in the older provincial laws and the Laws of the Land. It was quite common to own shares of different farms through inheritance or gifts. This could apply to ordinary farmers but especially to large landowners, not least the Church and the king, who had properties scattered in many places. By exchanging properties of equal value, called "makeskifte" in Norwegian, one could assemble properties in the same geographical area, which provided operational advantages. If allodial land was exchanged in this way, allodial right was “transferred” to the part of land one received through the exchange.

On March 19th 1285, Bishop Narve of Bergen reported that the Benedictine monasteries of Nonneseter and Munkeliv in Bergen had exchanged shares of a farm called Skeid on Karmøy. Munkeliv previously owned three quarters of the farm, while Nonneseter owned the rest. Nonneseter gave away its share of the farm and received an equivalent amount of land in in return.