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ICll.]
Commercial measures.
Import and export duties. CHARLES IX.
Mines and manufactories.
Survey of the country. 207
best ti’affic were those which were depositories of
foreign goods with free trade; but tliat these ad-
vantages should be pre-eminently enjoyed by those
towns which were adapted thereto )jy situation and
other circumstances. Such a place of deposit for
the Baltic, after the fall of Wisby, Stockholm must
become; and Charles, when king, augmented its pri-
vileges. But the necessity of a similar staple for
the trade of the North Sea did not escape him, and
Gottenburg, the second town of the kingdom, was
the creation of Charles, founded by Dutch settlers,
attracted by the promise of the free exercise of
their religion, with exemption from tolls and taxes
for twenty years. In general he adopted the prin-
ciple of freedom of import (with the exception of
foreign strong liquors, on which an excise was
raised),
" in order that our subjects may have the
larger traffic, and the better choice of foreign
wares." On the other hand, he imposed a duty
on goods exported. In 1606 this alsO was abolished,
but for the cojiservation of the standard of coinage
a fixed percentage on both imports and exports
was to be paid in silver to the crown, yet one-half
less by native merchants ’. Upon complaints being
made, this percentage was lowered, and appointed
to be paid in Swedish money, according to a fixed
value*. In 1605 the king allowed free coinage for
the behoof of his subjects, so that whosoever brought
to the mint four rixdollars, or four and a half ounces
of silver, should receive in return four and a half
dollars Swedish currency^. In the preceding year
it had been determined that half an ounce of silver
should pass for sixteen ores, and a rixdollar for
thirty-six’. In relation to weights and measures,
it was ordered that the balance in all the seaports
of the kingdom should be like that of Stockholm,
but the weight of the country towns should be one
lispund, and that of the mines two lispunds heavier.
The steelyard, the tun, and the spanu (half tun, or
two bushels), were to be adjusted by those of
Orebro, and the ell (two feet) by that of Ryholm ^.
If Gustavus Vasa be the father of the Swedish
mine-works, Charles trode in his footsteps. We
have already seen the care which he bestowed
upon those of his duchy, and that he may almost
7 Ibid. 497. 499.
8 Ordinance of Exchang;e and Customs, 1611, 1. c.
s Patent of free coinage, Jan. 7, 1607, 1. c.
1
Statute of Noirlvoepins, 1604.
2 Mandate anent the ell, weights, and measures. Stock-
liolm, May 7, 1605. Ryholm is a manor-house in the parish
of Beateberg, Westgothlaiid.
3 The export of raw iron, however, did not wholly cease,
but was placed under strict superintendence.
1
Charles, in a letter to the treasury, Abo, Dec. 13, 1601,
bespeaks a large quantity of similar articles from the above
places: SOOO spears, 10,000 bills with long Sjdints towards
the handle, the short firelocks or carabines to be made with
spring-pans and snap-locks, the long also with snap-locks.
Re,L,’.
5 Oct. 23, 1603, Charles paid to Laurence Kruse, burgher
of NykcEping, for articles furnished to him, 72,000 dollars, in
orders for copper from the Kopparberg, raw and bar iron
from Vermeland, sulphur, vitriol, and alum from Nerike.
A skeppund of copper was reckoned at 45 dollars, one bar
of iron at 6, and a last of raw iron at 40. Reg.
6 We have mentioned above an instance in which France
was concerned. Jan. 3, 1604, Charles sends a list of thain-
shnt, spring-balls or bombs, and canister-shot, which were
to be prepared for his own account. Reg.
"
To Jens Hammersmith, to rei)air to Westeras, and con-
struct a biass-forge. Stockholm, Dec. 16, 1606. Reg.
be called the creator of the mining districts of
Vermeland. He afterwards applied the same care
to the behoof of the whole kingdom. The produce
of the silver-mines of Sala was tripled during his
reign, and those of copper also were improved by
his attention. The forging of bar iron may be
looked upon as having first become general after
the ordinance of the diet of Norrkoeping in 1604,
that all the raw ore should be forged into bar iron
before it was exported from the kingdom, on which
account the burgesses of the towns are encouraged
to build forges,
" that the profits which foreigners
have derived therefrom may accrue to Swedish
subjects^." There were manufactories of iron at
this time in Arboga, Nykoeping, Eskilstuna, and
other places, where all sorts of arms, spears, pikes,
short and long firelocks, swords and daggers were
constructed*; nails and plates were also among
the articles of export. Alum aud sulphur works
were in operation in Nerike ’
; thei-e were also
foundries for cannon and balls, of which large
quantities were supplied to foreign parts ". Brass-
works were founded by Charles himself 7.
The new survey and assessment of the land is
also one of the works of the father which was con-
tinued by the son. Charles IX. extended this to
the northern provinces ^ Laud-measurers were
appointed in every district, and from the maps
prepared by each a general chart was to be framed,
a work confided to Andreas Bureus, who completed
it after the king’s death ’’. The measurements were
carried up into Lappmark, on the wild mhabitants
of which region Charles bestowed especial care,
building churches and appointing bailiffs
among
them, administering law and justice, and regulatmg
their tributes. We may well be astonished at so
great activity in all directions, in a ruler who was
unable for a single moment to lay down the
arms he wielded against foreign aud domestic
enemies.
The war in Livonia continued ; and in 1605
Charles proceeded thither for the second time.
Misled by his ard(jur, he lost against a weaker
enemy the battle of Kerkholm, fought September
8 Warrant for John Carlson, Stockholm, August 9, 1604, to
undertake a ground-measurement in Gestricland, Helsing-
iand, Medelpad, Angermanland, and West Bothnia, as it
had been resolved at the last diet at Norrkoeping, and earlier
at Linkoeping, that a royal inquest and survey should be set
on foot over the whole kingdom; wherefore he with the
bailitfs was not only to make the assessment, but to assist
every man to law and justice. Reg. A special survey for
Dalecarlia was ordered, Feb. 3, 1005, on which the king’s
letter says :
" We have heard that ye have anciently had
the usage of measuring your fields with poles. The pole has
been of six ells and a quarter (12 ft. 6 In.), and a tun-land in
length and breadth a hundred and eighty poles. And as ye
request to know how many tuns of seed-corn should be
reckoned to a grange which pays the full tax, we have made
order, after the best possible trial of the quality of the land,
that ei,’ht tuns of seed-corn, or eight tuns-land, should be
reckoned to such a grange. Where the ground is inferior
an allowance of some poles shall be made." Reg.
9
Fant, Prelections on Swedish History (Fbrelasningar i
Svenska Historien). The king in 1600 sent Sigfrid Aron
Forsius and Hieronymus Birkholz to Lappmark, with instru-
ments, with which they attempted to determine the latitude
of certain places. The map of Sweden by Bureus, (the earliest
of domestic production,) was published at Stockholm in 1626,
engraved in copper on six folio sheets, with a short geogra-
phical description. All the maps of the country in the seven-
teenth century are copies from this.
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