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228
Influence of government on
t)ie national character. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Contemporary account of
the people.
[ICll—
towns had engaged at the diet of l(i29, to main-
tain a number of vessels for the defence of the
country and the furthei’ance of trade, a shipping
company followed^, wliich in 1G30 was united
with the former. Lastly, the crown reserved to
itself in 1628 the salt trade, and in 1631 the corn
trade :
yet both were soon thrown open, under
high duties ’.
These enforced expedients of supply are to be
reckoned among the most aggrieving measures of
this reign. They multiplied what the Swede sees
with impatience
—middle powers in his relations
with his rulers. All that possessed influence
through property became—as lenders, holders of
land- fiefs, farmers, managers of profitable enter-
prises
—intermediate powers, on which the govern-
ment, no less than the subject, was dependent.
Hence the powerlessness of this government, other-
wise in many respects so energetic, in realizing the
aims it ever cherished for the welfare of the lower
classes. Therefore it often begged and exhorted
where it ought to have commanded ;
and our won-
der that repeated letters of reproof had no effect
vanishes, when we find that they affected some
powerful feudatory or rich partner in the trading
company, on whose assistance the crown counted ^.
Justice however must acknowledge that the wars
were of so long duration, that no one in the end
could escape the burdens they entailed.
On the other side no administration evoked more
abundant energies ;
in this respect the reign of
Gustavus Adolphus forms an epoch for Sweden.
This is visible not less in reference to the industry
and education of the people, than in the executive
and legislative functions of the state ; and it re-
mains to consider this part of our subject from
these points of view. We begin by quoting the
judgment of a foreigner upon the land and its in-
habitants at this day.
" This kingdom," observes
William Usselinx ’ of Sweden,
" has many advan-
tages above other countries in sea-ports, timber,
victuals, the wages of labour, copper, iron, steel,
pitch, tar, shot, and other munitions of war. The
inhabitants of the land are a hardy folk, who can
endure cold and heat, docile, active, quick. They
are, besides, obedient to their rulers, and little bent
to sedition and revolt, wherein they excel many
other nations and peoples. They want for nothing,
if
they would but exercise themselves, to become ex-
< This was rigorously followed out. The deputies for Got-
tenburg engaged, in 1629, to equip and maintain two armed
ships for the service of the kingdom. The lieutenant re-
ceived orders to enforce the fulfilment, and powers to place
those who opposed it under sequestration, and bring them
to punishment. Upon a complaint that this was contrary to
their privileges, a change was made, and the matter remitted
to the magistracy. Granberg, Gbteborgs Ilistoria, i. 26.
’ The former in 1629 (Stiernman, Ordinances, i. 985) ; the
latter before the end of 1631, as appears from a letter of the
king to the Palsgrave John Casiniir, Nov. 1, 1631. Reg.
Several financial projects were brought forward, among them
the king’s proposition in 1619 for the formation of a bank in
every town ; but little confidence in them was shown.
«
Hallenberg tells us much of the ferocious count Steno
Lejonhufvud, who, the king complains, gave him more
trouble than half Finland, as well as of Joachim Berndes,
notorious for his atrocities in the government of Viborg.
The latter was one of the chief shareholders in the Copper
Company, and the king needed his whole influence, as for
example in 1622, to maintain an undertaking important to
the royal designs.
pert seamen ;
for they have no defect of intelligence,
dexterity, and courage; and if they had a little prac-
tice, they would easily become good ship-builders, the
rather that almost all know how to handle the axe.
In respect to various manufactures of fine linen,
cloth, worsted, baize, bombazine, and others, there
is little of this kind done in the country, partly
because impulse and materials are wanting, and
partly as well because there are no outlets for
uttering their wares. But of skill and shrewdness
they have no want, for we find peasants able at all
sorts of handiwork. They are carpenters, joiners,
smiths, bake, brew, weave, dye, make shoes and
clothes, and the like, wherein they overpass all
other nations of Europe, forasmuch as in other
countries hardly any one will attempt to put hands
to any craft that he hath not learned. Their wives
and daughters make many curious devices in sew-
ing, weaving, and other pleasant arts, whence it
appeareth that they are very knowing and wise-
minded. True it is that they cannot arrive at the
perfection which is found in other countries, where
a man ever remaineth in one trade, and becomes
inured to it by long time, man after man, from
father to son. But it is not to be questioned he
that hath wit and memory to learn in haste, and
thence himself to invent, would also be perfect and
complete, if from his youth upward he practised
one thing and kept constant thereto. Some," adds
the author,
" are of opinion that this nation is
given
to intemperance in eating and drinking, as also to
sloth, and therefore will not apply themselves to
any steady labour. But how this may be, I remit
to pronoimce."
The natural capacity which this foreigner as-
cribes to the Swedes had, indeed, directed itself
especially towards war, but the impulse thereby
communicated was also deeply felt in the move-
ment of national industry. It has been assumed
that the native infantry of Sweden amounted in
the year 1624 to 40,000 men* ; perhaps too high a
number, as we find from the testimony of Axel
Oxenstierna, that the king at first requested a
standing national force of no more than 25,000 ^. It
is at all events certain, that its strength varied with
the varying products of the levies. At the same
time the native cavalry without the horsemen of
tlie nobility came to only 3500 men ’
;
which seems
to have been partly occasioned by the want of good
horses, at that time a subject of lament ^.
Foreign
’ A native of Antwerp, the same who was the author of
the project for the South Sea Company in Sweden. Ke
came with favourable testimonials from Maurice prince of
Orange and the States-general of Holland, where he originated
a West India Company. The above passage is from his " Me-
moir on the Australian or Southern Company in Sweden,"
printed in Stockholm in 1626, and published the same year
in a Swedish translation by Eric Schrbderus.
s
Hallenberg, v. 119.
9 Remarks in the council, 1647. Palmsk. MSS. t. 190.
Yet even in 1610, according to the statement of Charles IX.
in the diet of that year, the army consisted of 40,000 men,
including the foreign troops. At the same diet the yeo-
manry agreed that in Sweden alone, without Finland, 25,000
infantry should be levied. Hallenberg.
’
Hallenberg, v. 114.
2 " The yeomanry and clergy had good horses in earlier
times ; now they have not. The cause is, that in Charles
IX. ’s time they were obliged to work their horses, whereby
they were so exhausted, that the race failed." Axel Oxen-
stierna in the council, 1646, 1. c.
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