Sweden, a Constitution and Peacetime Prosperity: 1718 to 1740

Since late in the 1200s, a Council had existed in association with the authority of the king, and with the death of Charles in late 1718, the Council exercised authority concerning who would replace Charles. Charles had never married, and his closest surviving sibling was Ulrica Leonora. The Council selected her as queen on condition that she renounce all claims to absolute power. She agreed, and the following year she abdicated in favor of her husband, Frederik of Hesse, on condition that they agree to leave the creation of a new constitution to others. They agreed. Frederik became Fredrik I, King of Sweden, and Ulrica Leonora was queen. A peaceful political revolution had taken place, influenced by the development of constitutionalism elsewhere in Europe.

The Swedes began doing what Charles could have done in 1717. Sweden made peace. Sweden made peace with Augustus, recognizing him as King of Poland. Sweden made peace with Hanover, agreeing to give up the Dutchy of Bremen and Verden. In 1720 Sweden settled with Fredrick William of Brandenburg-Prussia. It recognized its loss in Pomerania. It made peace with Denmark. And, in 1721, it made peace with Russia, recognizing Russia's hold on territory it had conquered, including Ingria, Estonia, Livonia, Vyborg (Viipuri), Kexholm (Piorzersk) and part of Karelia. Sweden was no longer the dominant power over the Baltic Sea. That now belonged to Russia.

The Constitution and Prosperity

The writers of Sweden's new constitution were influenced by what had taken place among the Dutch and English, including the writings of John Locke. It was Sweden's first full and precisely written constitution, and it gave the Swedish people what they, and historians later, would call an "Age of Liberty." Basically the Constitution provided for parliamentary rule. Parliament was to meet at least every third year, and parliament alone was to control state finances and legislation. When parliament was not in session, the sixteen-member Council ruled with the king, who had two votes on most issues -- the duty of the Council and king being to run the government and to implement the decisions of parliament.

Parliament consisted of four "estates" -- one estate being that of nobles, another estate represented towns, another the clergy, and the fourth estate represented farmers. The estate of the nobles was largest, having around 1,000 representatives in parliament. Representatives from the towns numbered between 80 and 90. The clergy had 50 members, and the farmers around 150 -- one from each rural district. To pass into law, a proposal needed the approval of at least three of the four estates. Special committees handled various issues and were allowed to intervene in the administration of the judiciary. Members of the farmer estate were excluded from the committee on foreign affairs but included on the issue of taxation.

Sweden was more of a rural society than Great Britain or the United Provinces. It had less of a middleclass or bourgeoisie than the British or the Dutch. Ninety percent of the Swedish population still lived by farming and raising cattle. But Sweden's rural population, with their small farms, was uncommonly independent compared to much of the rest of Europe. Serfdom did not exist in Sweden, as it did extensively in Russia, Poland, the Balkans and to a lesser extent in Denmark, Spain and France.

The loss of overseas provinces had reduced the king's revenues by more than half, and the nobility had lost their reward of lands abroad. But with loans from the English and the French, and, more importantly, with peace, hard work and good harvests, the Swedes began to recover their old standard of living. They had a baby boom. Trade returned. The Swedes welcomed the imported goods which they had long been deprived. And prosperity and inflation made the tax burden lighter.

The government encouraged new opportunities for the poor, with exemption from taxes and other privileges for colonizing territory in the far north. The move of settlers there came into conflict with Samis (Lapps) of the area, the Samis trying to hold on to their use of fishing waters and pastures for their reindeers. And Sweden's government supported the settlers, forcing the Samis to withdraw from contested areas.

Parliament, meanwhile, had done away with the distinction between high and low aristocracy, and it left the nobility exempted from land taxes and with the exclusive right to hold high office in civil service. But these laws were impractical and failing, as commoners with talent were being appointed to high office and as a few farmers were gaining in wealth and acquiring their own tax exempt farming estates.

Sweden's industrial sector remained small, but in 1731 new factories were founded with support from the state, especially in textiles, which, in urban areas such as Norrköping and Stockholm, began employing between 13,000 and 14,000 people. By the middle of the century there would be 360 ironworks in the country, producing 47,000 tons of wrought-iron goods annually.

In foreign policy, the government allowed foreign vessels to bring into Sweden only goods originating in their own country, the Swedes aiming to advance their own merchant marine. This annoyed the British. Nevertheless, Sweden was able to maintain a new alliance with Britain, as it did with France and Brandenburg-Prussia.

Nostalgia for Glory

All of these successes did not totally obliterate a glorification of Sweden's past. The connection between impoverishment and war was not firmly established. The old idea that wars should pay for themselves in the form of reward to the victors and that victory was natural for one's own side was still alive in Sweden. Political parties had developed in Sweden that ran across the political boundaries called Estates. One of the parties was called the Hats (Hattar in Swedish). It consisted largely of aristocrats and people nostalgic for what they believed were glories connected with militarism. The Hats were for improving the nation's armed forces. They had cultural links with and received money from the French. They favored revenge against Russia and the acquisition of lost territories. Allied with them was Sweden's numerically small but wealthy bourgeoisie, the Hats favoring industrial development and economic investments. Many towns chose to be represented by members of the Hat party, and the Hats favored more control over the labor guilds, town privileges and projectionist policies.

Opposite the Hats were the Caps, who represented the interests of small farmers. Small farmers tended to be for peace and tended to side with the English, from which they also received money. The Caps had been dominant before 1738 and had been careful not to provoke Russia. In 1738, the Caps lost to the Hats, who gained a majority in Parliament. The Hats forced Sweden's elder statesman, Arvid Horn, to resign from his post as Lord President of the Council. The Hats favored treaties with France against the Russians. A new war erupted in 1740 -- the War of Austrian Succession -- which gave the Hats their opportunity on the side of the French for revenge against Russia. More war and death accomplished nothing for the Swedes other than their fleeting sense of revenge.

A Constitution and Peacetime Prosperity for Sweden, to 1740

The Constitution and Prosperity

Nostalgia for Glory