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136
Steps to its
extension.
history of the swedes.
Regulation of interna)
trade.
[1544—
Baltic, seeing that they found great advantage in
being able to buy foreign wares at first hand in the
western markets, while those of Lubeck and other
towns on the Baltic must buy them at the third or
fourth hand." Gustavus had concluded a defensive
alliance with Francis I. in 1542, accompanied by
stipulations for mutual commercial privileges,
which in 1559, by treaty with Francis II. were
extended and more precisely defined. Salt
imported from France paid no duty. The
commercial treaty formed with the Netherlands in
1526, was renewed in 1551, and in the same year
a like convention was made with England. By the
treaties of peace concluded with Russia in 1526
and 1537, the Swedish traders obtained freedom of
commerce with Russia, and permission to rebuild
their old factory at Novogorod. In all the treaties
with Denmark there were stipulations regarding
the trade with that country, although, from
particular causes, it was rather obstructed than
hindered by the king. He procured and disseminated
statements as to the classes of Swedish productions
which it would be most advantageous to export, in
order to obtain wine and salt from France ; cloth,
tin, and lead from England ; silks, linens, spices,
and sugar from the»Netherlands ; saltpetre and
hops from Denmark ; swords, harness, brass-wares
and retail goods from Germany 3.
The foreign commerce of the country in 1559,
occupied 62 Swedish ships of 3150 tons (lasts)
burden. The exports consisted of rough and
bar-iron, logs, masts, laths, deals, butter, tallow,
train-oil, seal’s blubber, salmon, eels, hides, goats, and
horsesCopper, which is not distinguished among
the exports of this year, is elsewhere mentioned as
an article of export, as well as tar. The trade with
Finland in fish, deals, and tar, was restricted in
1539 to Stockholm. The town of Ilelsingfors was
founded in that province in 1559, with the view of
rendering it the centre of the Russian trade, as
Revel and Riga had hitherto been5. The king
encouraged his subjects to embark in this trade, of
which foreigners had hitherto drawn the profits.
This _ plan had as little success, as the
representations which his ambassadors made in 1556, to
queen Elizabeth of England, " that she should
forbid the new navigation along the coast of
Norway to Russia (Archangel), which her subjects had
a few years ago commenced, and cause them
rather to visit the land of Sweden, especially the
famous town of Elfsborg, which lay upon the
West Sea, and had a good haven 6." To this town,
founded by the king, and also called New Lijdose,
he devoted an especial share of attention, as being
at this time the only Swedish port on the North
Sea, but the lack of inclination which his subjects
discovered for commercial pursuits drew from him
severe reproaches7. In the inland districts fairs
were appointed to be held, whither alone foreign
traders were permitted to resort8. His design was
to confine traffic to the towns, and in this view he
was induced to forbid trading to the nobles, who
did not observe the prohibition ; to the clergy, to his
own bailiffs and the peasantry, excepting in
Norr-land, where, in compliance with the old custom of
the country, one trader was to be allowed to every
parish 9. He wished that in the towns, as far as
possible, every man should pursue some fixed
branch of trade or handicraft, for the better
attainment of which end guild regulations were
framed, and now first authorized by the
government. His " ordinance for the town of Stockholm,"
of the year 1557, provided for the maintenance of
public order and cleanliness, with a strictness
unknown at that day in the large towns of Europe.
Anxious to secure expert craftsmen of all sorts for
the better instruction of his subjects, he caused
builders, stonecutters, masons, and joiners, to be
brought into Sweden, and placed youths under
their tuition as apprentices. At Westerwick he
established a dockyard. An artist, Anders the
painter, who was also employed in making plans
of buildings, received a stipend from the tithes
of Nykoping; to another, Canute the painter,
of Stockholm, we find him sending a student. If a
particular branch of industry was pursued with
extraordinary success in one part of the kingdom,
as that of lock-making in a district of
West-Gothland, he took pains to communicate the improved
method to others. He admonishes the peasants of
Lerback, that on pain of his severest displeasure
and chastisement, they should employ no " bad red
iron" in the preparation of their steel, because the
scythes made from it were worthless. For the
rest, he supposed that he could direct the course of
trade by prohibitions and taxes, several of which
led to oppression and public disturbances. Thus
his forbidding the Smalanders and
West-Goth-landers to sell their oxen beyond the Danish
frontier, or higher than at a certain price to
himself and those to whom he had farmed out this
privilege, was one of the causes of the Dacke feud.
Nor was his rigorous ordinance for enforcing the
current rate of money more praiseworthy, after he
had himself depreciated its essential value1.
At the Diet of Westeras, in 1544, it was enacted
that " the high roads should be widened, and made
more smooth, by the labour, and at the expense of
the inhabitants of the adjacent parishesV’ At this
3 Sfjernman, i. 109.
4 J. Bergius, Stockholm for 200 ar sedan. (Stockholm 200
years ago.) Inaugural Discourse in the Royal Academy of
Learning, 1758.
5 Stjernman, i. 112.
e Registers of 155G.
7 He wrote to the burgesses of Lbdose, " When perchance
some ships or traders from foreign parts come to your place,
ye fall every man upon them, like a drove of swine, snuffing
up what is coming in." He who had the least share of
understanding obtained the uppermost place among them, " if
he had the best to roast, and was able to set down the most
beer." Ilallenberg, Value of Coins and Wares, 147.
8 These were of old standing: the Disting at Upsala,
the Samting in Strengness, the Martinmas at Westeras,
Henrymas in Orebro, Petersmas at Tingwall in Vermeland,
and in Linkbping, &c. Stjernman, i. 21.
9 He complains that "the Norrlanders despise tillage, and
follow traffic as being lighter." Ordinances respecting
trade, 1546.
1 When the governor of the castle of Abo sent an assay
which the king deemed of too fine a standard, he replied,
" More of what costs most has been put into the kettle than
need was. ’Tis more easy, thou knowest well, to get cabbage
than lard, and if we put too much lard on the cabbage, it
grows unwholesome, and agrees not well with those who eat
it." The king called this striking too fat a coin. Ilallenberg,
id. 291.
2 In reference to plans of improving internal
communication by canals and arrangements for conveyance,Gustavus was
far in advance of his age. He gave orders in 1553 for the con-
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