Leos Müller

The Swedish East India trade and international markets: Re-exports of teas, 1731–1813

Abstract The Swedish East India Company (SEIC) has been traditionally seen as nothing but a peculiar and exotic adventure in Swedens eighteenth-century history. Hence, only limited attention has been paid to the SEICs international role, its relationship with other chartered companies, and to the development of international markets for colonial goods. The paper focuses on this unexplored chapter in the companys history. More specifically, it looks into the SEICs re-exports of Chinese commodities to Western European markets. Although the Swedish operation was limited compared to that of the other East India companies, the SEIC was an important tea trader on the world markets. The major part of the tea imports was re-exported through merchant networks to other European countries, especially to the Austrian Netherlands and Holland. Through illicit trade, part of the SEICs tea went to Great Britain. The paper shows in detail how the transactions between Gothenburg, Ostend, Gent and Antwerp were organized. The examples are mainly drawn from the business correspondence of the Flemish merchants.

The swedish consular service in southern Europe, 1720-1815

This paper deals with the origins and functions of the Swedish consular service in Southern Europe between 1720 and 1815. It is argued that establishment of the consular service was a necessary part of the Swedish policy of trade expansion. Consuls acted partly as commission agents of Swedish merchant and shipowners, because Sweden lacked established trading contacts in the area. Partly, consuls had official diplomatic functions, especially in North Africa. The consular service is conceived as an institutional arrangement reducing transaction costs of Swedish agents. This article suggests that reduction in protection costs in particular was a significant competitive advantage of Swedish merchants and shipowners and was due to peace treaties with the Barbary states in North Africa and Swedens neutrality in the 18th‐century great power conflicts.

Swedish merchant shipping in troubled times: The French Revolutionary Wars and Sweden’s neutrality 1793–1801

This article focuses on Swedish merchant shipping in the first decade of the French Revolutionary Wars, when Sweden, due its neutrality, expanded its trade and shipping. The article attempts to balance two contradictory views of neutral shipping: that of high risks of seizure by belligerents, and that of wartime profits. Three different perspectives are employed to demonstrate the complexity of neutral shipping business. Registers of ship documents (fribrev and Algerian sea passes) show the relatively limited impact of political events on shipping activities. Legal documents in diplomatic correspondence illustrate practically how the cases of seized ships were handled on both political and court levels. The debate in print on the case of ship Maria (the convoy affair of 1798) indicates how the issue of neutral prizes became incorporated into the political discourse on international relations and law of nations.

‘In apparent disagreement with all law of nations in the world’: Negotiating neutrality for shipping and trade during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

This Forum deals with maritime trade and shipping conducted by three neutral maritime states in the French Revolutionary Wars: Sweden, Denmark and the United States. The five contributions, based on specific cases of neutral shipping, illustrate the complementarity of neutral and belligerent trade and shipping, and so the significance of neutrality for the continuity of commerce in wartime. The introduction discusses eighteenth-century concepts of neutrality, as neutrals and belligerents understood it. Moreover, it provides a background narrative of the French Revolutionary Wars from the perspective of these three neutral states.

Svensk sjöfart, neutralitet och det väpnade neutralitetsförbundet 1780–1783

Swedish Shipping, Neutrality, and the First League of Armed Neutrality, 1780–1783. The purpose of this article is to follow two contradictory perceptions of neutrality in the political discourses of the mid-eighteenth century. One perception drew on the philosophy of natural law and the beneficial view of trade and sociability; here neutrality was perceived as a good and moral basis for peaceful inter-state relations. The second perception derived from the mercantilist view of international trade as an alternative means of warfare; here neutrality was perceived as a shameless exploitation of warfare. It is argued that the concept of neutrality went through an important development in the period between the Seven Years’ War and the American War of Independence, and that the Danish writer Martin Hubner played an important role in this development. Hubner’s view of neutrality, drawing on both discourses, became embodied indirectly in the declaration of the First League of Armed Neutrality in 1780, composed during the American War of Independence. The League was the joint action of three neutral countries, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, intended to stop the British harassment of neutral trade and shipping. When Sweden joined the League, it acknowledged this new concept of neutrality as part of its foreign policy.

Introduction: Persistent Piracy in World History

Maritime piracy is at present a subject of great public and research interest. In the West, and increasingly in other parts of the world as well, popular interest mainly focuses on the historical and cultural aspects of the phenomenon — that is, piracy as a fantasy or entertain- ment. Meanwhile, the activities of contemporary pirates — in areas such as the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Guinea, the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea — attract not only the interest of the general public and the media worldwide but are also a matter of great concern for the international community and the shipping and insurance industries. Like in most real, as opposed to fictional, cases of piracy in history, there is nothing romantic about the ravages of modern pirates.

Persistent Piracy : Historical Perspectives on Maritime Violence and State Formation

Abstract in Undetermined Warfare and legitimate violence have long been seen as key elements in state formation. Persistent Piracy brings into the picture the long missing component of maritime violence – and shows it to be of vital importance to the formation and, on occasion, disintegration, of states. Spanning from the Caribbean to East Asia and covering almost 3,000 years of history, from Classical Antiquity to the eve of the twenty-first century, the book is an important contribution to the history of state formation as well as the history of violence at sea. The book has contributions by leading authorities in the field of piracy studies and history more generally: Philip de Souza, Neil Price, Wolfgang Kaiser, Guillame Calafat, James K. Chin, Robert J. Antony, David J. Starkey, Matthew McCarthy, James Francis Warren and Stig Jarle Hansen. (Less)

In the doorway to development. An enquiry into market oriented structural changes in Norway ca. 1750–1830

New interpretations of the industrial revolution, its features and significance, have been a major driver in the field of economic and social history in recent decades. Research focus has shifted f...

“Merchants” and “Gentlemen” in Eighteenth-Century Sweden

Adam Smith made a clear distinction between the entrepreneurial “merchants” and country “gentlemen.” The quotation indicates clearly on which side his sympathy lay: the first elite was favorable for economic development, whereas the second one was not. Smith’s dichotomy between entrepreneurial merchants and spending gentlemen reflects his view of commerce as a dynamic economic sector, and the men of commerce as men valuable to the whole society. This view, however, was not uncontested. The early modern history of economic thought is full of controversies on the role of commerce and merchants. Classical mercantilist thought perceived commerce—especially foreign trade—as an important source of ready money that should be supported. Overseas commerce was easy to control and tax; in addition, it could rapidly expand. But commerce could also draw on the country’s resources, not least silver, if the luxury imports were to be bought.