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- What has Sweden Done for the United States?
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What Has Sweden Done for the
United States?
THE first attention given by the Swedish Government to the
country now comprising the United States is recorded in a
letter given by King Gustaf Adolph in 1624, to Willem
Usselinx of Holland, authorizing him to organize a “company to
trade in Asia, Africa, America, and Magellanica.” Given at
Stockholm the 21st of December, 1624. The following year
a company was organized and named “The Royal Swedish
General Trading Company, to do business in Asia, Africa, America and
Magellanica.” Part of its prospectus reads: “It must be well considered and
weighed that God Almighty, in his incomprehensible wisdom and providence,
has so foreordained and arranged that all which is necessary for the welfare
and sustenance of mankind is not found in one place, unless God has blessed
with his gifts each country by itself. Consequently what is wanting in one
country abounds in the other, and one country can not do without another.”
The next year, 1626, the King issued a charter to the company, entitled
“Charter or Privilege, which the Mighty and most noble Prince and Lord,
Gustaf Adolph, King of Sweden, the Gothes and Vendes, Grand Duke of
Finland, etc., has graciously given by letters patent to the newly established
Swedish South Company.” Its object is stated in a statesmanlike and
Christian manner, thus: “Whereas, we find that it will considerably add to
the welfare of our kingdom and of our subjects, and that it is necessary that
the commerce, trades and navigation in our lands and territories should grow,
be increased and improved by all suitable means; and whereas, by the reports
of experienced and trustworthy men we have received reliable and certain
intelligence that there are in Africa, America, and Magellanica, or terra
Australis, many rich countries and islands, with which it may not only be
possible to carry on a large commerce from our kingdom, but it is also most
likely that the people in those lands may be made more civilized and taught
morality and the Christian religion, by the mutual intercourse and trade;
therefore, we have maturely considered and as far as in our power concluded
that the advantages, profits and welfare of our kingdom and faithful subjects,
besides the further propagation of the holy gospel, will be much improved and
increased by the discovery of new commercial relations and navigation,” etc.
The thirty-first article of this charter shows how earnest the King was about
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