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474 SWEDENBORG IN THE HOUSE OF NOBLES. [Doc. 168.
>
Sweden has had for a long time, are its iron and copper works.
Iron brings annually from two to three millions of rix -dalers
into the country, or in other words, it pays for as large a
quantity of goods as corresponds to that amount; copper yields
annually one million ; whence it follows that the country’s
welfare and the balance of trade have been based for a long time
upon our mining interest, the proper maintenance of which
ought to receive our most careful attention , since foreign
merchants will use every means in their power to gain the
profit which our mining districts ought to yield to our own
country.
V. In order to produce these desired results it is
necessary, 1. To obtain information respecting the condition
of the Swedish mercantile marine, and to devise means by
which it may be gradually improved, and brought to its former
efficiency; 2. To examine the nature, quality, and quantity of all
the goods which are imported from abroad, and to what extent
they are necessary and indispensable to us ; so that either the
excessive importation may be stopped, or the merchandize may
be imported more cheaply and with less expense in its transport;
or that it may be manufactured at home, whereby an unnecessary
importation may be prevented, and the gain arising from the
manufacture of the goods may be kept in the land; 3. To see
how the works and manufactories in the country may be
protected and promoted, so as to produce better results in
regard to cheapness, quality, and quantity.
Such points with other similar ones might be delegated to
the various departments of the government, which the Diet
has entrusted with the administration of the country’s affairs
but as their attention is mostly occupied with the manner in
which this work is carried on by individuals, and with the
dispensing of justice, there is probably little time at their
disposal to devote to the consideration of this subject in
general, and in allits bearings and parts: wherefore the members
of the Diet themselves are the only authority to whom recourse
can be had in this important matter on which the welfare of
our whole posterity depends.
EMAN . SWEDENBORG .
Stockholm , February 5, 1723.
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