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in Sweden may here be mentioned. The first of these is a
petition dated Ystad, 1534, “on Friday after St Martin’s
day. In it the magistrates and council complain of the
many Scots who every year come and carry on their
trafficking to the great loss of all old-established
businesses, hawking about their ware all the country over,
“which is against our royal privileges.” Not only that,
the document proceeds, but these Scottish traders try to
intrude among us in the towns, such as Lund, Christianstad,
and Aahus. For this reason the petitioners have agreed,
with the consent of the magistrates, after this day not to
admit any Scots into the town, and resolved that no old
Scots who have paid their taxes for a long time back to
His Majesty should take in or employ in their business any
other servants or apprentices except Germans or Danish
ones, on account of the “eternal injury” and illicit trade
these Scots have been carrying on of late. A number of
inhabitants of Ystad append their names and seals.1
It will be seen that this petition of the “ many men ”
in no way differs from other such documents which are
found among the records of German towns in very great
numbers. Nor does our second instance of the then
popular trade-policy show any deviation from the old,
well-trodden path of argument, except that it is a rather
elaborate and detailed literary production. It runs—with
only short omissions—as follows :—
“As Your Majesty has asked us about the Scots, whom
prohibiting free trade. If there had been any really serious crimes of
which the immigrant Scot had been guilty, how readily these prohibitive
orders and the authorities flinging them forth would have taken advantage
of the fact! As the matter stands, the edicts are far more remarkable for
what they do not say than for what they do say. Their silence does more
credit to the Scots than their assertions do them harm, even if one grants
their justification.
1 Rigs Arkivet i Ki^benhavn.
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