To Örebro University

oru.seÖrebro University Publications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Financial intermediation in Stockholm, 1720-60
Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9050-164x
Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
2022 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

In the eighteenth century, growing trade and the Swedish state's need for resources to fund war, created an expanding credit market especially in the major towns. More money and credit circulated and more people were involved in transactions. In this paper, we analyze how the market in Stockholm functioned by focusing on financial intermediation between different actors. Since the market was so large, it was impossible for participants in the market only to rely on their existing social networks to receive information about prices and availability of credit. Many also needed help with transactions. This demand for financial services created opportunities for different actors, such as government civil servants, merchants and shipping agents, to provide assistance, but also to profit from information asymmetries. In the paper, we use ledgers created by the government's Debt Office (Riksens ständers kontor) to track how financial intermediation developed over time and to investigate the different strategies actors utilized in the market. This rich source material has not been used before by research. The detailed records provide a better view of the workings of the market than previously used material such as probate inventories, business correspondence and notary archives. We can therefore present a broader and a more dynamic picture of how financial intermediation in Stockholm functioned in the eighteenth century, and to question the existing narrative that focuses on the informal character of early modern credit. This in turn allow us to make more accurate comparisons between the Swedish capital and other European financial centers in the period. Furthermore, the findings about the financial market in Stockholm clearly manifest the inseparable connections that existed between mercantile activities and the workings of the Swedish fiscal-military state.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022.
National Category
History
Research subject
History
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-98543OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-98543DiVA, id: diva2:1651489
Conference
Economic History Society Annual Conference, Robinson College, University of Cambridge, UK, April 1-3, 2022
Funder
The Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, P18-0160Available from: 2022-04-12 Created: 2022-04-12 Last updated: 2022-04-13Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Authority records

Winton, Patrik

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Winton, Patrik
By organisation
School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
History

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 58 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf