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92 Produce. Fisheries. HISTORY OF
THE SWEDES.
Institution of guilds.
The country people bartered their wares. The
Norrlanders and Eastlanders, or Finns, were
accustomed from the earliest times to bring the
pro-duce of their herds, the chase, and fisheries to
Stockholm and the lower country, with which they
procured themselves other necessary articles, as the
miners exchanged their iron and copper for grain.
The Helsingers had an old privilege of travelling
with their wares between the different places of
trade, and more particularly frequented, as is still
the case, the fair of Disting in UpsalaOlaus
Magnus states, that in his days Swedish horses
were yearly exported to Germany ; they were
hardy, though of small size, and roamed the heath
unconfined, even in the winter season, until their
third year. He speaks also of a nobler stock, in
West-Gothland, highly prized in war, whose
exportation was forbidden ; Oeland was remarkable
for its singularly small race of ponies ; Gottland
was famous for its breed of sheep. Oxen were
used in some places for tillage and winter-carriage,
yet not generally, for Gustavus I. afterwards
encouraged their employment in this way. In several
provinces, Smaland, a part of East-Gothland,
Dals-land, Vermeland, and the whole of Norrland, the
people derived their chief support from their flocks
and herds. The chase yielded a rich return of
furs and skins, large quantities of which were sold
for export. Elk-liides were shipped by the thousand,
with minever, ermine, and marten skins.
In the gulf of Bothnia the fisheries, especially
of salmon and herring, were largely productive.
Fishermen and buyers from different quarters
collected in spring at the mouths of the great streams
of Norrland. Persons from Stockholm and other
towns of Sweden and Finland, regularly every year
visited these fishing stations2, from which towns
afterwards arose. In Tornea, most of all, at
Midsummer the concourse was large, with many
Russians and Norwegians. The herring fishery on the
coast of Scania was pursued chiefly on account of
the Ilanse Towns. Of that in the islets of
Bohus-land we hear less, until in the latter half of the
sixteenth century it became uncommonly abundant,
after that of Scania had declined.
Among the civic customs of the middle age was
the institution of guilds, of which, in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, more than one hundred are
said to have existed not only in the towns, but
throughout the country. These were societies
founded in honour of some saint or relic, admitting
persons of both sexes under certain obligations and
rules, and blending, at determinate times, religious
exercises and works of charity with the
entertainments of the table3. The principal guilds had halls
1 Scandinavian Memoirs, iv. !)6. From Olaus Magnus
(xiii. 38) we learn that the country people of the hundreds of
Mark and Kind in West-Gothland were already during the
middle ages noted as turners and hawkers of platters, bowls,
boxes, and other articles of the kind. The peasants
sometimes abused the opportunities of this inland trade, to carry
"merchants’ wares" as well as "peasants’ wares," which
was forbidden by the Calmar Recess of 1474.
2 For these fisheries were framed the Harbour Rules
(Hamne-skra) of King Charles Canuteson, " for those who
use to fish in the king’s common fishing-ground.’’ This
mode of expression refers to the powers of regulation and
taxation; various suits respecting the Norrland fisheries
show that they were considered in the middle ages as private
property.
of their own, and often held large revenues, arising
from donations and bequests, of which the motive
is to be sought in the devotional services and
masses celebrated by these societies for the souls of
their deceased brethren. Hence there were few of
which the clergy were not members. Even the
guild feasts were opened with divine worship, which
was followed by the drinking of toasts, with hymns
of praise to the saint, in memory of whom the cup
was drained. The guests ate what each had
prepared for himself, bringing to the board not more
than two or thi-ee dishes ; beer, which must be
tasted beforehand, since there was a fine for
blaming it during the compotation 4, was procured
by the joint contributions of both brethren and
sisters. The guildhall was decked with fresh boughs
and fragrant flowers, the floor strewed with pine
sprigs and grass, and on the outside of the doors
large leafy branches were placed. While the
refection was iu progress the musicians of the guild
played, among whom the most important was the
organist ; fifers, trumpeters, tymballers, drummers,
and lutanists are also mentioned as serving in the
Guild of the Body of Christ in Stockholm. The
society was governed by an alderman and
stool-brothers ; and although princes and nobles joined
these fraternities, the incorporations of craftsmen
have yet the same origin. Among their objects
mutual protection was one of the most important;
during the earlier period of their existence they
avenged conjointly homicide or outrage done upon
any of the brethren of the lodge, and assumed a
jurisdiction over their own members, which the
most powerful guilds, as that of St. Canute in
Denmark and Scania, exercised with the consent of the
crown even in capital causes.
Times of violence and fierce tempers generated
heinous crimes and licentious manners, especially
among the possessors of power. Of the lengths to
which the vengeance of the great occasionally
proceeded, sufficient examples have been already
adduced. Nor were the clergy exempt from the
general corruption. Bishop Olave Gunnarson was
poisoned at the synod of Westeras in 1461, because
lie had zealously denounced the immoralities of the
priesthood 5. The monasteries, of which the
number ultimately rose to about sixty, did not
universally set an edifying example of continence ;
hence St. Bridget, rebuking the clergy for laxity,
compares such cloisters, in her zeal, to houses of
ill fame. Pity that those founded upon her
own rule soon exposed themselves to a like
reproach. The disorders arising from the
consociation of monks and nuns in the Bridgetine
convents, occasioned citations to Rome and before the
council of Basle, without however being effectually
3 Compare Muhrberg, on the Guild of our Lord’s Body at
Stockholm, Acad. Transac. vol. ii.; and Fant, Dissertatio
de Conviviis sacris in Suecia.
* " Nullus cerevisiam culpet—bibant honeste sine
con-tencione et blasphemia." From the Rules of the Guild of
our Lord’s Body. (Convivium corporis Christi.) For a
banquet given to this guild by its aldermen in 1513, at
which only fourteen of the brethren were present, there
were purchased the half of an ox, two sheep, forty pounds of
smoked beef, two hams, three neats’ tongues, eighteen
pounds of butter, and two casks of beer with spices. The
statutes were called skra, a word also signifying the guild
itself.
s Diary of Vadstena, S. R. S i 178.
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