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1632.]
Declarations of
the estates.
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. INTERNAL RELATIONS. Collection of
taxes. 223
king sometimes evades the presence of the yeo-
manry, and rather, especially when he himself is
absent, convenes a commission of estates. Yet in
the general diets of his time the peasants had per-
fectly free right of speech. This most clearly ap-
pears from, the measures of precaution against it
which the government of Christina’s guardians
foimd it convenient to take ^.
We have mentioned all the diets of Gustavus
Adolphus, after the adoption of the Ordinance for
Diets, and likewise all the imposts which after his
day became permanent. As we perceive, they
were not yet so under his reign, but were mostly
renewed by the estates from time to time. They
were first converted into standing taxes by the
continued wars. In their distribution he sought
as much as possible to conform to the principle of
equality for all orders according to their means, a
rule often inculcated as well by the king as the es-
tates. In the statute for the introduction of the
little toll (or customs) they declare: " To this we
will all of us, without distinction of I’ank, excepting
none, submit ourselves, that by the exemption of
one and the other great frauds may not be occa-
sioned, and thus the crown be deprived of what we
have well resolved and promised for the pursuit of
the war; yet if the said toll should in future, after
some time, be found pernicious and unbearable to
us, then will we humbly expect from the king’s
majesty that it should not be continued ’." At the
diet of 1625, when the mill-toll was adopted, the
ground was stated to be,
" that the aids and inde-
terminate tributes which now weigh upon the land
.will not bring in much, forasmuch as the chief and
richest men of estate in the land with their hinds
(lijon), land-renters and folk are exempt there-
from ;" wherefore " we have considered, approved,
and agreed, that a toll may be laid by the crown
upon all the grain which comes to the mill to be
ground, belong it to noble or unnoble, learned or
unlearned, no one excepted who is settled and
resident under the crown of Sweden." The nobles
especially bind themselves to its paj-ment by rea-
son of the love which as true subjects and patriots
they bear to his majesty and their country. No
Swedish king before Gustavus Adolphus demanded
and received greater sacrifices from the nobility.
The hardest remained in the abolition by the diet
’ Before the diet of 1635 the administration of guardians
instructed the provincial prefects that, as they themselves
well knew how hard it was to get to an end with the com-
mons at the diets, since the hundreds mostly used to appoint
for their deputies
" such as are outspoken and have little wit
in them;" therefore they were graciously entreated to work
to this end (yet cautiously and in secret) that such persons
should be appointed diet-men, who were " well-atfectioned
and serviceable by intelligence and spirit," to consult with
tlie other estates regarding the high and weighty affairs of
the realm ;
which the prefects should in such sort "perform
with management and discretion." Stockholm, Sept. 3, 1635.
From the Nordin MSS. We find afterwards the crown
bailiffs choosing the representatives of the yeomanry, and
sending those who undertook the office on the lowest terms,
drawing themselves to the highest amount the wages paid
for attendance. This was forbidden by resolution, on the
complaint of the yeomanry, in 1672 (compare Stiernman,
Resolutions of Diets and Meetings, ii. 1649); so that in
future, the justice of the hundred, with his ncemnd, should
choose fit and discreet persons to be diet men. But in 1680
Charles XI. declared: "The king’s majesty totally dis-
approves that the justices of the hundred should choose and
of the year 1627 of all exemptions from conscription
previously allowed. " Because the kingdom is best
defended by native Swedish waiTiors," say the es-
tates,
" we have all conjointly agreed that we, for the
most humble service of his majesty and the relief
of the realm, should respectively set on foot and
undertake a general levy, by which every tenth
man, be he dweller upon crown or faxed lands,
upon freeholds (whether a franklin or not), upon
the farmsteads of priests, bailiffs, clerks, and other
persons exempted, shall be taken for the service of
the crown as soldiers*. In like manner every
tenth man shall be levied in the towns for the ser-
vice of the fleet. Yet may this, because it is con-
trary to the privileges of the nobles and other im-
munities, by no means be turned to the prejudice
of their successors." Thus the matter remained
until the death of Gustavus Adolphus. At the
same time the nobility consented that their pea-
santry, like those of the crown and taxed estates,
should pay the impost on cattle. From such incon-
trovertible tokens of magnanimity we may learn the
spirit which then animated the estates of Sweden.
Howbeit, complaints of the pressure of the pub-
lic burdens were not unknown ;
and the new were
not introduced without disturbances. In 1620 re-
presentations were made, that the contributions
which were heretofore wont to be paid to the
crown had occasioned discontents, and must often
be lowered, seeing that the poor and indigent paid
equally with the rich and prosperous, whereby
many were impoverished and their farms made
waste ^; therefore the cattle and field-tax, which
was now ordered, was to be paid according to
every man’s ability. But as for the ascertainment
of this, ministers, bailiffs, and the six-men of the
church in each parish had to enrol the cattle and
seed-corn of every yeoman, it was soon found that
this brought with it great inconveniences. The
land-tax and excise imposed bonds hitherto un-
known in Sweden on the industry of the country.
Barriers with gates and toll-houses were built to
every town, and inspectors
^
appointed ;
the same
forms being observed at the market-places through-
out the country. The most ordinary household
business, brewing, baking, or killing, could no
longer be pursued freely in the towns. All this
caused in the outset great discontent. The king
appoint diet-men from among the commonalty ; and there-
fore graciously wills that the people themselves elect and
appoint their diet men at their own mind and pleasure, only
the prefects to see that good and fit men be chosen thereto.
But for what concerns the review of their petitions to be
proposed, which the prefects pretend should first be made
by themselves, it cannot be refused the yeomanry at the
general diets, to allege all their grievances and complaints
which they may have to prefer;" 1. c. i. 1839.
^ The nobles were, however, personally exempted from
the little toll.
8
Although bound to war service, the nobles (and even
their domestics) were yet personally exempted. Their vassals
had otherwise in general only furnished to the levy half the
quota of the other peasantry.
9 See the statute of the diet. A difference was indeed
made between the full-stead, or full-taxed, and the half-
taxed yeomen, (two of whom were sorted in the scale with
one of the former, and two cotters with one of the half-taxed,
as appears from the statute for the war-tax in 1617,) but all
full-stead peasants, without respect to the difference of their
means, paid alike. (Compare p. 89.)
>
Brokikare (bridge-keepers), they were commonly called.
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