King Christian IV of Denmark & Norway bought some 8000 of these in the period 1587-1607 in order to arm the Norwegian farmers. In 1604 he published a new Norwegian law book describing the arms each and every farmer should have, according to the farms size. The small farmer should have a pike, the somewhat larger should have a war axe or a tessak, the wealthier farmers should also have a 'suitable musket'. Four of the really large farm should go together an fund a professional soldier with weapons, horse av salary.
In Denmark it was the nobility that had soldiers and took in the taxes, the king only had 'Livgarden til hest og til fods' (The Life-guard on horse or on feet) and collected import tax from the Øresund straits). He's main income were the Norwegian taxes and his possibility of gathering an army was Norway.
Every year there was a 'våpenting' where the farmer in each district had to show their weapons and that they were in order. If not, they were fined.
My collection of Norwegian military arms therefor starts in 1604 ad I've made a little page on the tessak's, as we call them:
http://norskevaapen.no/?p=1776