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1392.]
Regulations as
to mines. JOHN AND CHARLES. Improvements of Charles
in Vermeland. 177
Sparrc-, purports that it had been presented with
falsities by one who was the chief of Uars ’. If these
judgments be really theirs, then in the very outset
we have two men of opposite parties, both com-
petent judges, agreeing in that conclusion to
which we have been led upon historical grounds.
We refer to what has been already remarked in
the narrative of that reign to which this statute is
ascribed *. According to some, Rasmus Ludvic-
son was the inventor of this discovery ^. If the
intention was to consecrate by antiquity the new
maxims asserted in the time of Gustavus I., this
object, notwithstanding the suspected source, was
obtained ;
for in this sense the statute of Helgeands
Holm was often enough appealed to in after-days.
But he who brought it to light, had likewise private
views of his own. In an appendix to his memoir,
the author inveighs very zealously against the con-
struction by the nobility of mills and fish-weirs in
tlie great streams of the country, which, according
to this alleged statute, should escheat to the
crown *
;
and a saying was current, that a suit
brought by Paine Ericson relative to a fishery in
the Bra bay, had been the proximate inducement
to this discovery in the liistory of the kingdom ’.
King John had before upheld the pretensions
advanced by his father to mines and forests. In
the year 1584 the council refers it to him to pro-
nounce whether, when there were more veins of ore
than his majesty could work, the same, as also the
woods, might not be let out to foreigners, in consider-
ation of a payment of tithe to the crown. The king
rejoins, that he would himself make available all
the veins of oi’e already found ;
those which should
be further opened, might be let upon tithe, until he
found it convenient again to enter upon his rights*.
These riglits the king exercised, as for instance in
1575, ill reference to Bitsberg,
"
anciently the prin-
cipal" iron-mount in the kingdom, where the
miners are forbidden to break up the ore in the
lesser pits which should be opened there ;
on the
other hand, the works were to be carried on in the
greater mine, and the unlicensed forges to be sup-
pressed. Duke Charles complains in 1581 that
John had forbidden him to work a mine at Nora,
which he had bought
’
;
aud he forms an alliance
3
Lagerbring 1. c. Diplomat. Suec. i. 607.
•
Compare c. iv.
5 Paine Ericson, or Rasmus Ludvicson, says Peringskold.
See Liliegren’s Diplomat. 1. c. Peringskold otherwise de-
fends the authenticity of the statute, but relies upon another
letter which bears all the marks of forgery.
6 " But since the alien sovereigns came in, the baronage
and nobles began to found mills and fisheries on the before-
mentioned three streams, and then to arrogate to themselves
the same rights which the crown should possess. . . . And
the crown was hereby endamaged, and its rents impaired up
to this day, inasmuch as the Swedish rulers would take no
step hereupon." Diplomat. 1. c. The Swedish text shows
that Paine Ericson could never write his mother-tongue as a
man of education at that day wrote it.
7 The inducement to Paine Ericson’s discovery, with the
memoir upon the statute of Helgeands Holm, was that
he, as a man of office in East-Gothland, laid down a fish-
weir in the Bra bay, whereupon, complaint being made, he
put forward his fabricated memoir to the effect that forests,
ore-pits, streams, as also tlie Bra bay, appertain to the
crown. Observation by bishop Nordin in the Nordin Col-
lections. Messenius, who wrote after the assertion had
produced its effect, is the first historiographer who mentions
the statute of Helgeands Holm, unknown to all his fore-
runners.
with the industry of private persons in his duchy.
In the above year he wrote to the conmioners of
Vermeland :
"
Seeing that the bounty of God
Almighty has replenished the mountains of Verme-
land with all sorts of ores, such as have never
hitherto been brought to light, but rather perad-
venture kept hidden there by our subjects, in the
fear never to be allowed to make profit of such
ore, and to be loaded with burdensome taxes ;
therefore, and to take away such apprehensions, be
it known to all, that whosoever discovers ore, may
freely bring it to light for a payment of tithe ’.’’
The same maxims he followed in i-espect to woods,
as is plain from his patent to those who wish to
settle in the wastes of Vermeland, to hold their
settlements descendible to their heirs, but subject
to land-tax 2. For the profitable cultivation of this
province, Charles, after that king whom the saga
makes first here to lay the axe to the root, merits
the highest praise, and especially he is the real
creator of its mines. The Finns of Vermeland
were called in by him as colonists. The lathe of
Carlskoga (Charles’ forest), formerly a waste, where
on the strand of Lake Mockeln scattered cattle-
steadings were the only places of refuge, still
bears his name. Carlstad ^, the first town in Ver-
meland, was built by him, and a hundred years
after his death, the old people of the country still
named him the great Chai’les. He early showed
that care for general education, which he after-
wards as king was to restore on the ground of
Protestantism. What John in this i-espect in-
tended and partly accomplished, was all united
with the hierarchical plans peculiar to himself, and
fell with them to ruin. Of the liberal arts this
king was the first pi’otector in Sweden. Several
foreign artists, especially architects, were at his
court ; he built incessantly, and, as his subjects
complained, at far too great a cost.
Of the progress of industry, on the other hand,
not much in his time is to be told. The produce of
the silver mines fell off, and first began again to
rise towards the end of his reign. The king com-
plains of the extensive frauds in the preparation of
copper, bar-iron, and raw-iron, which hence was
little esteemed by foreigners *. He complains still
oftener of the depreciation of the coinage, while he
" Deliberations in king John’s time. Archives.
5
Registry for this year.
1
Nykoping,Jan.23. Duke Charles’ Reg. for 1 581. {Tionde,
tithe, tiend. T.)
2
Tingvalla, Nov. 2, 1582. Reg.
3
Privileged on Tingvalla Island, March 5, 1584, with two
great fairs for all the inhabitants, Petersmass in summer,
and the "
Fasting
" on the second Sunday in Lent, with trade
to the mines of Vermeland and lake Vener, which was
to be carried on only in Varnums Port, afterwards Chris-
tinehamn. In 1589, the duke appointed Andrew Laurence-
son rector of the school of Carlstad, as he also devoted par-
ticular care to the schools of Strengness, Nykiiping, and
MarisBStad. As king, in ICIl, he privileged the mining town
of Philipstad. So early as 1581, Charles gives order that the
people might assemble for traffic every other Saturday by
the hill-church of Fernebo. Before the foundation of Carl-
stad, the duke intended to build a town in the parish of Bro
in Vermeland, and assigned thereto (Jan. 14, 1582) fields and
meadows, with the Isle of Wal in the Wener. Reg.
’^
In Finspang there was already a manufactory, where
spades, pick-axes, and other coarser implements were pre-
pared ;
Sigismund obtained for his Polish journey 800 skip-
punds of copper ;
a portion of the Danish cannon, which by the
peace of Stettin v/ere to be redeemed, was paid for with iron.
N
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