Editing Reykjavík (section)

===Urban development===
The site of the modern city centre was farmland until the 18th century. In 1752, [[Frederick V of Denmark|King Frederik V of Denmark]] donated the estate of Reykjavík to the {{ill|Innréttingar|is|Innréttingarnar}} corporation. The leader of this movement was [[Skúli Magnússon]]. In the 1750s, several houses were built to house the [[wool]] industry, which was Reykjavík's most important employer for a few decades and the original reason for its existence. Other industries were undertaken by the Innréttingar, such as [[fishing|fisheries]], [[sulfur|sulphur mining]], agriculture, and shipbuilding.<ref>[http://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=1752 Hvaðan kemur nafnið "Innréttingarnar" á fyrirtækinu sem starfaði hér á á 18. öld?] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910092150/http://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=1752 |date=10 September 2016}}. Vísindavefur. (in Icelandic)</ref>

The Danish Crown abolished monopoly trading in 1786 and granted six communities around the country an exclusive trading charter. Reykjavík was one of them and the only one to hold on to the charter permanently. 1786 is thus regarded as the date of the city's founding. Trading rights were limited to subjects of the Danish Crown, and Danish traders continued to dominate trade in Iceland. Over the following decades, their business in Iceland expanded. After 1880, [[free trade]] was expanded to all nationalities, and the influence of Icelandic merchants started to grow.