UDDEHOLMS AKTIEBOLAG Boiling Mills and Open Hearth Furnaces, Hagfors. yond, during the centuries when Sweden established-and lost-her position as a great political power. The first step towards the formation of the Uddeholm Works was taken in 1668, when a mine superintendent in the south Vermland district, named Karlström, on the initiative of the Governor of the province, applied for a licence to start iron works at Uddeholm. After encountering considerable difficulties this licence was at last obtained, the Works were started and, at first, developed rapidly, Karlström soon becoming owner of the Works as well as of the neighbouring estates. The end of the seventeenth century, however, was an unquiet period in Sweden. The State finances were in a most deplorable condition, owing to the perpetual wars and the absence of uniform and unanimous management. The scarcity of the capital necessary for industrial enterprises made the Works dependent on merchants in the Tool Steel Forge, Munkfors.