Source:
Memoirs of Christina, Queen of Sweden, volume 1, pages 97 to 103, by Henry Woodhead, 1863; original at the University of Michigan
The account:
The Regents were not inattentive to the development of Sweden's internal resources. The Catholic Powers, with suicidal policy, had driven away many of their most industrious subjects, and Protestant and rival countries profited by their fault. Many of the persecuted Walloon and French Protestants took refuge in Sweden, and introduced there an improved method of working in copper and iron. Sweden's chief wealth lay in these metals, but the art of preparing them was little understood there. By the assistance of foreign artificers weapons were now made in the country which had long supplied the best metal for their material, and the sturdiest arms to wield them. Other foreigners introduced manufactures of cotton and wool.
The Government wisely encouraged these refugees, and protected them from the bigotry of the Lutheran clergy, who had as strong an inclination as the Catholics themselves to persecute Calvinists. All their attempts at intolerance were met with a quiet and steady opposition by the nobles.
The Swedish Government at this time was essentially an aristocracy, and was in far less awe of the clergy than the kings had been. The nobles had discovered that it was more difficult for the Church to isolate a number of powerful individuals than to make a victim of one.
Rome herself has generally eschewed such collisions as are likely to unite a people with its rulers against her, and those hierarchies which have aped the authority of the Vatican have initiated its prudence in this respect. The Venetian Senate had lately set the example of despising the fulminations of Rome, and the Swedish Senate, who were equally high-spirited, were not likely to yield to a faint echo of those terrors.
The Regents also endeavoured to establish another Scandinavian colony in North America. A governor was sent out, and a fort was built and named Fort Christina. In Sweden two most useful measures were the improvement of the roads, and the formation of a regular post.
The Chancellor appreciated the importance of trade. He perceived that it languished in the towns on account of the imposts and extortions to which the citizens were subject. He said that the towns would become deserts if these evils were not remedied, and he endeavoured steadily and perseveringly to reform the system. He showed a knowledge of the principles of trade very far in advance of his age, and laid down axioms which were inculcated by Adam Smith one hundred and forty years afterwards, but which have only been acted upon in our own days. He wrote that although shopkeepers complain, with some appearance of truth, that the introduction of foreign goods injures the native production, yet that whoever examines the matter with proper understanding and attention, and considers the advantage of the whole community, will find that this foreign trade increases the demand for the inland Swedish goods.
The country received its share of his attention as well as the towns. The old abuse had crept up again of obliging the peasants to supply horses, and give free entertainment to the nobles on their journeys. It was very difficult to eradicate this custom, but the Chancellor endeavoured to mitigate its evils.
Klas Fleming, the High Admiral, had, with indefatigable zeal, raised the Swedish Navy to a higher condition than it had ever before occupied. He superintended the construction of ships as well as the discipline of their crews. The Council, however, thought that his active mind required still further employment, and they made him Governor of Stockholm.
This office was more municipal than military, and was now just created for the purpose of improving the construction and internal arrangements of the city. Fleming was to combine in this capacity the duties of Lord Mayor and Inspector of Works. He remonstrated at his new appointment, and said that the fleet gave him occupation enough; but his objections were overruled. The Council had not mistaken his powers. He prepared new municipal laws, and laid the foundation of two faubourgs, which have since become the handsomest parts of the city.
Stockholm in general was badly built, the streets were narrow and hardly passable, the houses were undrained. They were both ugly and unhealthy. Fleming made improvements in all these particulars; many of the worst houses were pulled down to widen and ventilate the streets, much to the annoyance of the Conservative population. The public discontent gave rise to a most singular sanitary theory, for, when the plague broke out, the people declared it to be the judgment of heaven on Fleming's godless proceedings in draining houses and widening streets.
Nothing diverted Fleming from his purpose; the ravages of the plague were diminished by his prudent measures, and the recurrence of that calamity rendered much less probable.
He showed no respect for persons in his measures. One of the houses he condemned to be pulled down belonged to an old lady named Anna Trolle. She wrote him a bitter and scolding letter about it, which the Admiral answered by some half jocular, half sarcastic verses: the last syllable of each line rhymed with the lady's name, and the substance was that if her house were all built of gold it must still come down to make room for his street.
He endeavoured to curtail the exclusive privileges of guilds, as the Swedes had copied that system from Germany, and erroneously supposed that it conduced to the benefit of trade.
The method was too firmly rooted in the prejudices of the people to be entirely demolished, and Fleming once said, in despair, that a man might make himself king in Sweden but could not make himself a tanner.
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