PARTICULAR INTERESTS AND THE COMMON GOOD IN SWEDISH MID‐18TH‐CENTURY DIET POLITICS: THE ‘FINNISH’ PERSPECTIVE1

1. This article has been written as a part of the project ‘Enlightened Loyalties. The Conceptual Construction of National, Cultural and Political Identities and Loyalties in North‐Western Europe, 1750–1800’, funded by the Academy of Finland.

Abstract

In 20th‐century history writing, 18th‐century politicians from the eastern part of the Swedish realm have often been regarded as ‘Finnish patriots’ because they promoted local interests at the Diet. However, it is not evident how these ‘Finns’ themselves perceived their role. This article analyses four examples from the 1740s to the early 1770s, related to political disputes in which the rhetoric of ‘common good’ was used. Here, Finnish interests do not appear to be primary. Instead, the interests of the realm and its inhabitants dominate the discourse, as well as the interests of particular estates and local communities. 18th‐century politicians can thus be seen as active members of a multi‐layered society of privilege kept together by the belief in the common good, rather than as early protagonists of nationalist ideals.

Notes

1. This article has been written as a part of the project ‘Enlightened Loyalties. The Conceptual Construction of National, Cultural and Political Identities and Loyalties in North‐Western Europe, 1750–1800’, funded by the Academy of Finland.

2. To mention only a few nationalist researchers and their works, see for example from the first half of the 20th century for example J. R. Danielson‐Kalmari's, A. R. Cederberg's, and Einar W. Juva's monographs, e.g. Danielson‐Kalmari, Suomen valtio‐ja yhteiskuntaelämää 18:nnella ja 19:nnella vuosisadalla, 6 vols; Cederberg, Suomen historia vapauden ajalla, 2 vols; Juva, Suomen tie Uudestakaupungista Haminaan 1721–1808. From the second half of the century, see for example works by Pentti Renvall; among these the first part of Suomen kansanedustuslaitoksen historia (i.e. Renvall, “Ruotsin vallan aika”) offers an insight to this scholarly tradition. Cf. also Renvall, Nykyajan historiantutkimus, 262–75, which defines the difference between national Finnish history and so‐called general history in a way characteristic of the nationalist paradigm: according to Renvall, the history of the old multilingual Swedish realm becomes Finnish history when the examples used are chosen from what was later to become the Finnish nation or the nation‐state Finland. Cf. this definition to the estate‐specific analyses of the Finnish dimensions of the Diet system during the Age of Liberty: Paloposki, Suomen talonpoikaissäädyn valtiopäiväedustus vapaudenajalla; Tolonen, Suomen papiston valtiopäiväedustus vapaudenajalla; Nikula, Finländska borgare på 1700‐talet. Cf. also Ahonen, Jälleenrakennuksen politiikka ja talous; Paloposki, Suomen talouden kehittäminen 1750–1760‐lukujen valtiopäiväpolitiikassa. For an overview of Finnish 20th century historiography, both national history and efforts against it, see e.g. Ahtiainen and Tervonen, Menneisyyden tutkijat ja metodien vartijat, 62–83, 120–30; Tommila, “Historia,” 89–91, passim. The Finnish national history paradigm present in Renvall's definition is problematic from a post‐nationalist perspective since it results in a history of an amputated realm and defines as Finnish a past that did not necessarily consider itself as such. This should urge historians to put national sentiment aside when reflecting on historical belongings in the context of the old Swedish realm.

3. Interpretations of this kind are present also in more recent Finnish research, especially in the history of ideas: see for example Manninen, Valistus ja kansallinen identiteetti, which deals with the ‘Finnish’ patriotism of influential academic and clerical persons in Åbo/Turku. Modern Finnish nationalism is also visible in the Latinist Juhani Sarsila's editions of Daniel Juslenii works from the beginning of the 18th century: see Juslenius, Suomalaisten puolustus; Juslenius, Suomen onnettomuus – De miseriis Fennorum. Concerning erudite writings, however, it is almost impossible to know how largely shared or important the views expressed in them really were in the 18th century. Interestingly, the idea of a separate Finnish nation in the 18th century can also be found in recent Swedish history writing; see Nordin, Ett fattigt men fritt folk, constructing a Swedish national 18th‐century identity. Some aspects of Nordin's book have been criticized in Eng, Det svenska väldet, especially 291–96.

4. Concerning political and administrative history using this source material, see for example the works mentioned in note 2. When it comes to economic history, several works have contextualized economic change in ambient currents of ideas and ideals, but there is still a place for an up‐to‐date intellectual history of 18th‐century economics. In the meantime, important works in this respects are at least Virrankoski, Anders Chydenius; Karonen, Patruunat ja poliitikot; Kuisma, Kauppasahojen perustaminen Suomessa 1700‐luvulla; Kuisma, Metsäteollisuuden maa.

5. Forsell's application to the Royal Majesty (arrived 4 June 1745) and the memorandum of the Royal Collegiums: Swedish National Archives, Stockholm (here RA), Sammansatta kollegier till KM, vol. 235a, 18 June 1745; Forsell's application to the Diet: RA, Borgarståndets arkiv, 1746–1747, R2900, f. 963–66, no date, terms ‘Rikets allmänna nytta’ f. 965v (see also f. 964, ‘den nyttan som Riket i allmänhet...’). See also Karonen, Patruunat ja poliitikot, 91–2, in which the same memoranda are analysed from the perspective of economic entrepreneurship. The governor of the Province of Kymmenegård and Savolax, Carl Stiernstedt, strongly backed the applications of Forsell and Degerby‐Lovisa, as he saw them as a good way to solve smuggling problems; see Nurmiainen, “Degerby‐Loviisan perustaminen,” 139; and RA, Skrivelser till KM, Landshövdingar i Nyslotts (Savolax) och Kymmenegårds län, 12 June 1745; about tobacco in Lovisa, see Nikander, Lovisa stads historia, Vol. I, 220–24, and in Borgå, Mäntylä, Porvoon kaupungin historia, Vol. 2, 278–79.

6. RA, Sammansatta kollegier till KM, vol. 235a, 18 June 1745.

7. It was also publicly known that the Russians had spread a manifest written in the name of their empress Elizabeth during the spring of 1742, promising that Finland was to be given a wide autonomy in the future after she was cut away from Sweden and annexed to the Russian empire. See for example Manninen, Valistus ja kansallinen identiteetti, 116, 122.

8. Finska deputationens betänkande 29 January 1747, edited and published in Palmén, “Tvenne aktstycken från frihetstiden,” 158–84, quote from 164–65: ‘J samma proportion som Finland sig förkofrat och tilltagit, har ock Sweriges egen tillväxt kunnat synligen förmärkas, och äfwen så mycket som Finland blifwit afstyckadt och förminskadt, så mycket har och Swerige sjelft förlorat i styrka och anseende.’ See Danielson‐Kalmari, Suomen valtio‐ ja yhteiskuntaelämää 18:nnella ja 19:nnella vuosisadalla, Vol. 2, 270–77; Mickwitz, De finska deputationerna och ekonomikommissionerna under frihetstiden, Vol. 2, 143ff; Nordin, Ett fattigt men fritt folk, 305.

9. Hagert's counter‐memoranda to the Diet: RA, Borgarståndets arkiv, 1746–1747, R2900, f. 970–71v, dated 29 November 1746, and R2900, f. 975–81, dated 30 May 1747. Christian Trapp's memorandum to the Diet: R2900, f. 967–69, 5 December 1746, quote from f. 967v.

10. On this mechanism in general, see e.g. Kuisma, Metsäteollisuuden maa, 81–100, particularly 88–9.

11. These quotes and the quotes in the next paragraphs are extracted from the following dossier: RA, Sammansatta kollegier till KM, vol. 212a, 10 May 1770, with addenda, including the grievance of Lovisa, Meinander's response to it and reports from other concerned parties, such as the quoted county meeting memorandum from December: ‘...de myckna Nytta och inkomst som Kongl. Maj:t och Kronan igenom denne inrättning uti dessa penningslöse tider medelst denne Såg, förmedelst Tull och nödig Betjenings Krono utskylder ei at förtiga, den allmänna nytta som Riket igenom skogens, hwilken ei annors kan nyttig giöras, förädlande hwarigenom kan tillbringas...’. See also Nurmiainen, “Gemensamma privilegier för ett odalstånd,” 181–86; Nikula, Finländska borgare på 1700‐talet, 72–3.

12. RA, ibid., the grievance of Lovisa: ‘...förbud leda rättighet för honom til en utländsk handels frihet, hwars nytta eller skada för Riket och i synnerhet denne Stad, Kongl. Collegierne förmodligen icke insedt eller bepröfwad...’.

13. RA, ibid., the grievance of Lovisa: ‘...hur betänckeligit och äfwentyrligit thet torde wara, at för mycket familiarisera wår Allmoge och Crono Betjente wid Gräntsen med Ryska undersåtare och sammanbinda theras inbördes interesse... hwaraf the ej kunde innom Riket hämta sig någon fördehl och nytta...’.

14. RA, ibid., the grievance of Lovisa: ‘...hela Riket i sin handell förlora för en enda Menniskias winnings lystnad...’.

15. RA, ibid., the reply of the commoners of Savolax to the grievance of Lovisa: ‘...at en Såg icke med Landets förderf, utan till dess stora nytta har ... en fri Allmänheten wälsinnad Medborgare... winst och nytta af sin nedlagde stora kostnad uti detta ädeliga land, samt andre wälsinnade undersåtare theraf upmuntere, at nedsätta sitt ringa förnåd till sådana och andra för det Almänna nyttiga werck och inrättningar, hwilcka skulle i framtiden ansenligen gagna thet Allmänna och Riket’.

16. RA, ibid., J. W. Meinander answers the grievance of Lovisa: ‘...at en hel Stads nytta borde framför en enda Menniskias winningslystnad praefereras’, in the following way: ‘...det antalet af dem, hwilka utaf min Såg redan haft god inkomst och nytta, är tijo gånger större än mine contraparters, Och som jag således, i wälmening, at gagna såwäl det Allmänna som ock mine landsmän, samt under hopp at sielf tillika kunna hafwa någon fördel til Sågens byggnad och upräthållande, utlagdt icke allenast all den ringa egendom, jag med swet och möda, hela min lifs tid kunnat mig lagligen förwärfwa, utan ock fördiupat mig uti anseenlig gäld...’.

17. RA, ibid., the memorandum of the Collegiums to the Royal Majesty.

18. RA, ibid., the memorandum of the Collegiums to the Royal Majesty: ‘...de fölgder Borgerskapet welat härleda af för berörde författning, äro uti bibewisliga suppositioner grundade och af ingen betydelse emot den wärkeliga nytta ortens inwånare af den samma flyter och emot den inkomst samt fördel Kongl. Maj:t och Cronan med det allmänna genom Tull Inkomstens förmening... tillfaller’.

19. See Nurmiainen, “Gemensamma privilegier för ett odalstånd,” 181–86; Nikula, Finländska borgare på 1700‐talet, 72–3.

20. Cf. the lively debate about the privilege chart for the so‐called free or non‐noble estates (odalstånden) that began at the Diet of 1769–1770 and continued until the revolution of Gustavus III, see e.g. Nurmiainen, “Gemensamma privilegier för ett odalstånd”; cf. also Anders Chydenius' texts about the liberty of industry in the ‘nightwatchman state’, see for example Virrankoski, Anders Chydenius.

21. It should be underlined, as for example, Virrankoski, Anders Chydenius, does several times, that Chydenius' political thought owes much to Anders Nordencrantz in economic matters.

22. Chydenius, Källan til Rikets Van‐Magt, edited and published in Palmén, Politiska skrifter af Anders Chydenius, 91–111, quote (from the part “Påminnelser”) 108: ‘Handelen liknar aldeles en ström: vattnet faller altid nederåt, och handelen drifves af intet annat än vinningslystnaden. Kunna icke de andre Städerne med större vinst segla utomlands, än til Stockholm, så tycks Förbudet däremot vara lika onödigt, som at ställa vakt vid en älf, att han ej skal få löpa upföre’. Cf. also Virrankoski, Anders Chydenius, 135; Kuisma, Metsäteollisuuden maa, 94–5.

23. For instance, the nobleman, later governor of the Province of Kymmenegård and Savolax, Anders Henrik Ramsay, accused at the Diet in 1745 the shipowners of Stockholm of monopolizing the export of timber, which was contrary to the interests of the Finnish sawmill entrepreneurs. RA, Kammarkollegium till KM, vol. 138, 25 May 1745; Sammansatta kollegier till KM, vol. 207, 9 August 1745; see Kuisma 1993, pp. 58–61, which deals not only with Ramsay's activities but also with the conflict between timber export and shipbuilding: was it allowed to establish an exporting wood industry in Southern Finland, or should available wood be reserved for the construction of the sea fortress Sveaborg, as the Crown wished?

24. Chydenius, Vederläggning af de skäl, hvarmed man söker bestrida Öster‐ och Vesterbottniska samt Vesternorrländska städerna fri seglation, edited and published in Palmén, Politiska skrifter af Anders Chydenius, 49–90, quote 84, § 52: ‘Naturen är alltid otvungen och enkel. När blodet får flyta jemnt i alla ådror, efter deras storlek och drift, så mår kroppen bäst, men vill man tvinga för mycket deraf till hjertat och lungor, i mening att göra dem starkare, våndas de i sitt blod, andra lemmar tvina bort...’; cf. Virrankoski, Anders Chydenius, 134.

25. See Virrankoski, Anders Chydenius, 113–14, 124, 163–69, 352.

26. Karonen, Patruunat ja poliitikot, 104. It is obvious that Stenhagen understood Ostrobothnia as a part of Finland, but it was often also perceived as a continuity of Västerbotten on the other side of the Gulf of Bothnia.

27. Palmén, Politiska skrifter af Anders Chydenius, xxix–xxxv; Virrankoski, Anders Chydenius, 166. A good example of the discussion about these Diet speeches in Finnish national history writing can be found in Paloposki, Suomen talouden kehittäminen 1750‐ ja 1760‐lukujen valtiopäiväpolitiikassa, 230, 236, which analyses the changing attitudes in the ‘Finnish’ Diet deputies' rhetoric from the end of the 1730s to the 1760s. The earlier attempts to deny the existence of Finnish separatism had been replaced by a discrete implication of its dangers, with the intention to change Swedish regional politics to be more favourable to Finland.

28. Borgarståndets protokoll den 3 Aug. 1765, printed in Stockholm, 1765, quoted by Palmén, Politiska skrifter af Anders Chydenius, xxxii–xxxiii: ‘...som det allmänna bästa då säkrast befordras...’, ‘...hvarigenom riket ofelbart komme att tillskyndas en märkelig nationel vinst...’.

29. The famous economist Anders Nordencrantz (known at that time, before he was ennobled, as Bachmanson) also uses this concept and its close variations repeatedly in his Arcana Œconomiæ et Commercii from as early as 1730, cf. for instance p. 49; the name of the pamphlet by Chydenius, Den Nationnale Winsten, from the year 1765, is apparent too.

30. RA, Frihetstidens utskottshandlingar, 1765–66, R3438, Expeditionsdeputationen, vol. 143, f. 457–62: a memorandum on the liberation of the peasant sailing by Israel Carlsson, the Diet representative of the Peasants in Pikis and Halikko; on Israel Carlsson Helenius' person, see Paloposki, Suomen talonpoikaissäädyn valtiopäiväedustus vapaudenajalla, 156, 169.

31. The Swedish term ‘upplysningen’, ‘the Enlightenment’, does appear frequently in contemporary writings, but in its indefinite form, ‘upplysning’, where it does not mean a philosophical movement, but rather ‘learning’, ‘knowledge’ or ‘information’. There has been much scholarly discussion about whether there was any ‘Enlightenment’ of the French type in Sweden, cf. Frängsmyr, Sökandet efter upplysningen; an overview of the debate is Skuncke, “Was There a Swedish Enlightenment?”, 25–41.

32. RA, ibid., f. 460: ‘Men i desse uplysta tider, så håppas man at den saken lärer tala för sig sielf’. Chydenius himself, in any case, also actively advocated the peasant sailing at the Diet. See Virrankoski, Anders Chydenius, 167–68; cf. Palmén, Politiska skrifter af Anders Chydenius, xxxvi–xl, particularly xxxviii.

33. RA, ibid., f. 457: ‘...til Fäderneslandets största och säkraste gagn böra anwändas och tillämpas, hwilka efter Naturens egen anwisning böra läggas til grund för alla näringarnes upbringande i Riket...’.

34. RA, ibid., f. 459v: ‘...de mäst wälmenande medborgare, hälst af de öfriga Respective Stånden...’. Cf. for instance a report by Carl Fredrik Nordenberg, later ennobled Nordenskiöld, who said during the inspection of the Frugård sawmill that he owned, in 1739, that it was the duty of ‘every righteous patriot’ to promote the establishment of new sawmills in any possible way. Finnish National Archives, Helsinki, Uudenmaan ja Hämeen lääninhallituksen arkisto, Hb 1:51, 19 February 1739; quoted also in Kuisma, Kauppasahojen perustaminen Suomessa 1700‐luvulla, 51, and in Kuisma, Metsäteollisuuden maa, 75.

35. RA, ibid., f. 458v: ‘...at armod och fattigdom må med skiäl anses såsom en kräfta eller frätsår, som til slut kan giöra ända på hela Rikskroppen: Wi hafwa wäl länge haft bedröfweliga kiänningar af denna farliga Rikssiukdom...’.

36. RA, ibid., f. 458: ‘...at bestå uti en billig frihet i alla wåra så wäl Landt‐ som Stadsmanna näringar. // Billigheten af denna frihet, lärer icke få mätas med annan måttstock, än Rikets gemensamma nytta; Och som denne eller det allmännas wäl icke kan tilfullo erhållas, utan at det Allmänna eller Folkhopen först öks; Så måtte wäl ökningen af wår folkhop blifwa det närmaste måttet, hwarmed gräntsorne för friheten i Rikets näringar, och således äfwen för Landtmanna hushållningen böra utmätas och stadfästas’. Several similar conceptual parallels are found in the political language of the period. Cf. e.g. a Diet memorial from October 1755 by Carl Fredrik Nordenskiöld, about conditions for fishing in Finland, in which there are together in the same context both the expression ‘to the general benefit’, ‘til almän fördel’, and the sencence ‘att förskafva det almänna af Fiskerierne i Finland en rätt sanskyldig frukt och nytta’, that is: ‘to acquire from fishing to the public in Finland right, real fruit and benefit’; RA, Borgarståndets arkiv, 1755–56, vol. 67, R3129, f. 256v.

37. RA, ibid.

38. Chydenius, Vederläggning af de skäl, hvarmed man söker bestrida Öster‐ och Vesterbottniska samt Vesternorrländska städerna fri seglation, published and edited in Palmén, Politiska skrifter af Anders Chydenius, 49–90, quote from 59, § 16: ‘Man påstår sjelf, att det allmänna bästa bör anses såsom den yppersta lag vid näringars grundläggning uti ett politiskt samhälle. Hvad härligare samfundslag än denna, när den i möjligaste måtto allenast är lämpad efter hvar enskilds förmån, som lefver inom samhället?’

39. RA, ibid., f. 461: ‘Således ser man huru uti förbättringen af wår allmänna hushållning, det ena steget til Rikets upkomst, gifwer en naturlig och otwungen anledning til det andra; Så at om den högstnyttiga Seglations friheten för Rikets Allmoge icke eljest blir...’

40. This conclusion can be drawn on the basis of practical political language in the 1740s to 1770s. It remains possible that the result would be different if we examined, for instance, the new ideals of the academic sphere at the end of the century, which were to become the foundation of early Finnish nationalism in the 19th century.