Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Winton, Patrik

Titel

The Globalizing Swedish State: Loans, Exchange Rates and International Merchant Networks Around 1770

Ist Teil von

• Scandia, 2017, Vol.83 (2), p.65

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This article analyzes the external borrowing of the Swedish state in Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Genoa during the 1760s and early 1770s. By using a global history perspective, with a focus on links between actors and how these links influence these actors rather than comparing developments within or between states, it is possible to get a new understanding of how the relationships between the Swedish state and the leading international capital markets were established. Additionally, the consequences of receiving the borrowed funds with regard to the Swedish state are also analyzed. The analysis shows that the financial problems following Sweden's participation in the Seven Years' War created incentives for members of the Swedish political elite to find new ways of funding existing deficits and debts, as well as stabilizing the currency. External borrowing was seen by many as a key fiscal tool for addressing these financial challenges. At the same time, there were investors in the Dutch Republic and Genoa interested in finding new investment opportunities that could give a higher return. Through intermediaries, such as Swedish diplomats, negotiations were initiated between bankers in Amsterdam/Genoa and representatives of the Swedish state concerning borrowing funds. One of the key issues during these negotiations concerned how the Swedish state should portray itself as a reliable debtor. Several actors were interested in providing credits to the Swedish state. One such actor was the merchant Henning Frederik Bargum in Copenhagen, who was the director of the Danish Guinean Company-a company involved in the slave trade. By expanding his business to the Swedish state, Bargum hoped to create new opportunities, as well as to strengthen his position among leading merchants in Copenhagen. The analysis shows that the negotiated loans were primarily used to liquidate debts accrued in Swedish Pomerania during the war and to stabilize the Swedish currency in the international capital markets. The success of the loan negotiations created a new fiscal practice for the Swedish state. This practice of external borrowing had consequences for the formation of the Swedish state, since it required the state to clarify its resources and create organizations able to handle the daily interactions with the international credit markets. These practices also meant that the Swedish state participated in the process of financial globalization during the eighteenth century.