Swedish neutrality and shipping in the second half of the eighteenth century

Leos Müller ()
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Leos Müller: Uppsala University

No 6007, Working Papers from Economic History Society

Abstract: "By the late eighteenth century Sweden had become one of the leading shipping nations in Europe. According to the established historical perspective (Eli F. Heckscher), the successful development of Sweden’s merchant fleet should be attributed to the protectionist policy of the state and to Sweden’s exchange pattern of bulky imports (salt and wheat) and exports (iron and timber products). This paper argues that the most important factor of the rise of the Swedish shipping was Sweden’s neutrality in the Anglo-French wars, especially those of 1776-83 and 1793-1802. I will provide a picture of the development of Swedish shipping based on the ""Algerian"" passport registers, which record all Swedish-flagged vessels employed in trade south of Cape Finisterre. These unveil the significance of tramp shipping in Swedish maritime activity. The traditional view is that Swedish vessels were engaged only in Swedish foreign trade. However, a close analysis of the Algerian registers and other sources show that Swedes were very active in tramp shipping in the Mediterranean and, from the 1780s, also in transatlantic shipping. Here, neutrality was a major competitive advantage. Sweden was a French ally, but she carefully avoided entanglement in the Seven Years’ War, and she was an active member of the neutrality leagues of 1780-83 and 1800. Sweden lay on Europe’s geographical periphery and had ceased to be a first-rate power, but that did not prevent her occupying a profitable neutral niche in the drawn-out struggle between Britain and France. From a broader Atlantic perspective, Swedish neutrality played an important role in reducing the negative impact of warfare on trade. Due to neutrals, such as Sweden and Denmark, commercial connections between belligerent countries – and between belligerents and their overseas colonies – were not completely disrupted."

JEL-codes: N00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-04
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