Linnaeus’ Sweden
Eighteenth-century Sweden was both larger and smaller than today’s Sweden. Geographically the country was larger, because all of Finland and the city of Greifswald in northern Germany still belonged to Sweden. These areas were lost in 1809 and 1815, respectively. However, neither in terms of territory nor foreign policy was Linnaeus’ Sweden of the same scope and importance as during its time as a great power in the 17th century. During the period from about 1660 to 1720, Sweden had lost enormous amounts of territory. The constant warfare, in tandem with poor harvests and epidemics, had been a scourge to the people. See further The Age of Liberty—Linnaeus’ day.
In terms of population the Sweden of the Age of Liberty was a small country. In the middle of the 18th century the number of inhabitants amounted to just over two million, that is, less than a quarter of today’s population. Most people lived in southern Sweden. Northern Sweden was very sparsely populated, pure wilderness in large sections. There was little knowledge of the remote parts of the realm.
In the 18th century Sweden was a decidedly agrarian country. In 1760, for example, the number of people employed in manufacturing (the rudimentary industries of the time) was only about one percent of the population. Today most Swedes live in towns and cities; in the 18th century the great majority lived in the countryside. The towns that did exist were generally tiny. Only Stockholm, which had about 73,000 inhabitants in the early 1760s, could be considered a major city by international standards. Sweden’s then second and third cities, Göteborg and Karlskrona, each had just over 10,000 residents at that time. The population of the university towns of Lund and Uppsala only amounted to a few thousand.
Literature:
Sten Carlsson & Jerker Rosén, 1961; 4th ed. 1980. Svensk historia 2: Tiden efter 1718
Linnaeus’ Uppsala
The Uppsala that met Linnaeus in 1728 was exceedingly small by today’s standards. There were still traces of the terrible fire of 1702. In 1750 the population of the town amounted to 3,608. In the late 1760s the 4,000 mark was passed. This can be compared with today’s population of about 118,000 residents of the central city.
Nevertheless there was rapid growth during the Age of Liberty, with the population of Uppsala doubling in the course of 50 years. The explanation for this is probably the booming University, which had repercussions on the town as a whole, of course.
Sometimes the term ‘academic agrarian village’ is used about Uppsala and Sweden’s other university town in Linnaeus’ day, Lund. It must be remembered that cows actually lay chewing their cud right beside the academic buildings.
Agriculture was by the far the most important industry. On the other hand, manufacturing, the incipient industrial production of the day, was slow to take hold in Uppsala. Trade, too, faced problems, owing to the fact that the sailing channel to Uppsala harbour was considerably harder to navigate than those to other towns around Lake Mälaren. In the middle of the 1780s the naturalist Johan Fischerström complained of the weak business community and commerce in Uppsala. He writes in his book Utkast til Beskrifning om Mälaren (Preliminary Description of Lake Mälaren) (1785):
“How feeble are the strides taken in building factories. In 1770 Uppsala was merely a spinning mill for Stockholm factories, and a tobacco spinning mill that produced about 29,000 pounds. What has been added since then is hardly worth mentioning.”
Literature:
Torsten Petré, 1958. Uppsala stads historia III: Uppsala under merkantilismens och statskontrollens tidskede 1619–1789.
Linné och upplysningen
Den strömning som för eftervärlden mer än någon annan blivit förknippad med 1700-talet är upplysningen. Med begreppet "upplysning" har man avsett olika saker, vilket förklarar att definitionerna varierar. Ibland uppfattar man upplysningen som fortsättningen på det sena 1600-talets vetenskapliga revolution, då den moderna vetenskapen började ta form, alltså ungefär tiden mellan Newtons Principia (1687) och franska revolutionen (1789). I mer specifik mening brukar man dock med upplysningen mena kretsen kring den franska Encyklopedin, som utkom 1751–1780. Till dessa upplysningsfilosofer hörde bl.a. Voltaire, Diderot och d'Alembert. Till en vidare grupp i samma anda hörde t.ex. Montesquieu, Rousseau, Holbach och La Mettrie.
I Sverige slog aldrig upplysningen igenom som en rörelse, däremot influerades givetvis många svenskar av ideerna från Frankrike. Huruvida man ska betrakta Linné som upplysningsman beror därför på vilka urvalskriterier man använder. Några har menat att de verkligt framstående naturforskarna i frihetstidens Sverige, av vilka Linné kanske var den främste, i själva verket utgjorde upplysningen i vårt land. Andra har dock framhållit att Linné inte kritiserade den politiska överheten eller religionen, som de franska upplysningsmännen gjorde, utan att han tvärtom var djupt religiös. Av vissa forskare har Linné dessutom beskrivits som en gammaldags skolastiker snarare än som en modern upplysningsföreträdare.
| Litteratur: |
| Tore Frängsmyr, Sökandet efter upplysningen: En essä om 1700-talets kulturdebatt (1993). |
| Sten Lindroth, "Linné – legend och verklighet", Lychnos 1965/66. |
Mercantilism
Today we live in a time when free trade has become a major component of the international economy. The European Union, EU, was originally a free trade project, for instance. During the 18th century the way to economic prosperity was seen as something entirely different. The economic doctrine prevailing in those days is called mercantilism. From the end of the Middle Ages through the 19th century, mercantilism was the totally dominant economic school of thought in Europe.
The source of wealth for a country, according to the mercantilists, was above all foreign trade. It was through trade that the country obtained gold and silver, and it was precisely these precious metals that measured the country’s wealth.
Dannemora mines from the late
1720s. This was the first attempt
in Sweden to power mine pumps
with a steam engine. Copper
engraving by E. Geringius in
Mårten Triewald’s Brief Description
of the Fire and Air Machine at
Dannemora Mines (1734).
But a nation’s assets also included the size of its population: the more citizens there were, the better off the country was. In France, for example, parents were granted tax relief after the ninth child, which was fully in line with the mercantile population policy.
Other income could be collected by the state in the form of customs tolls, both at borders and within the country. This explains a number of Swedish place names like Norrtull (North Toll), Skanstull, and Danvikstull, etc.
Mercantilists also pointed out that the state should be actively involved in economic policy. Via decrees the state could subsidize businesses, for example. Generally the importance of manufacturing (that is, the emerging industries) was stressed at the expense of other activities like agriculture, forestry, and fishing.
During the Age of Liberty in Sweden, mercantilism was primarily associated with the Hat Party, which was in power 1738–1765. Sweden was an agrarian society, which explains why Swedish mercantilists also felt that agriculture was important.
Literature:
Eli F. Heckscher, Merkantilismen, andra upplagan (1953)
Ostindiska kompaniet
Sveriges största handelsbolag under 1700-talet, Ostindiska kompaniet, spelade en roll för Linné och naturalhistoriens utveckling i Sverige. Linné var känd som en idérik och skicklig organisatör. Han visste att kompaniets skepp, som seglade på handelsfärder mot bortre Asien, särskilt till Kina, måste ha en skeppspräst på alla sina skepp. Han tog kontakt med kompaniet och föreslog att hans duktiga studenter skulle få företräde till dessa tjänster, eftersom de då samtidigt kunde ta hem exotiska plantor och djur åt honom. Linné var uppfylld av tanken att kunna se, och i sitt system inplacera, alla arter i världen.
fascinerade Linnés lärjungar.
Här ett kinesiskt fikonträd.
Linné lyckades med sitt förslag. Utan att något formellt kontrakt skrevs, fick hans lärjungar ett visst företräde till tjänsterna som skeppspräster. Prästens förrättningar var få; han skulle hålla högmässa på söndagarna, läsa stormbön när det blåste upp samt begrava de döda. Resten av tiden kunde han iaktta hav och vindar, samla växter och djur när man gick i land, samt skriva reseberättelser. Genom kompaniet ökades vår kunskap om Asiens natur och kultur, om Indien, Java, Kina och Japan. Stora samlingar hemfördes till Uppsala; han blev särskilt lycklig när han fick ta emot en levande tebuske.
Många av reseskildringarna trycktes, en del översattes till de stora europeiska språken. Ostindiska kompaniet förenade sin handel med kultur och vetenskap.
| Litteratur: |
| Tore Frängsmyr, Ostindiska kompaniet, andra upplagan (1990). |
| Sven T. Kjellberg, Svenska Ostindiska Compagnierna 1731–1813 (1974). |