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Nykroppa Iron and Steel Works.
soon becoming the owner, not only of the factory, but also of landed estates in the
neighbourhood. Towards the close of the century, however, the Works encountered
severe difficulties. Constant wars and the want of unanimity in the administration of
the country had brought the financial condition of Sweden to a very serious pass, and
the want of the requisite capital in the’country re-acted on its industrial enterprises.
Uddeholm, too, felt the pinch and, devoid of capital as it then was, became dependent
on the merchants in the business town of Gothenburg, who, with the hard, grinding
spirit that was not uncommon at the time, made the very most of their position.
This fact, together with the great difficulties caused by bad communications, embarrassed
the Works to 110 little degree at the close of the 17th and the first years of the 18th
century, but the business was continued, however, under the management of Karlstrom
and, after his death, of his widow, uninterruptedly until 1714, in spite of the great
wars then going on, and the famine and ^pestilence that devastated Vàrmland at that
period.
Somewhat later, in 1720, the Works came into the possession, first by lease and
afterwards by purchase, of Bengt Gustaf Geijer, a mine proprietor, under whose
energetic and intelligent management the business developed and flourished to such an extent
that Geijer’ has every claim to be considered as the real founder of Uddeholm as it
exists to-day. New .forges and bar irom hammers were built, thereby increasing
manifold the production of iron. Mines were acquired, and large estates added to the ori-
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