Swedish Realm Research Articles

Finnish reported speech and Swedish intratextual translations in 17th-century court records

Abstract This paper studies on multilingual administrative writing in Sweden during the early modern era of emerging national language ideology within the domain of court writing. The source material for this study consists of lower-court records from Finnish-speaking areas of the Swedish realm c. 1620–1700. The court system in Sweden was reformed in 1614 with the establishment of appellate courts that scrutinized the sentences passed by lower courts. Court records were written in Swedish, the official language of administrative writing of the period, but certain segments, notably represented speech, could be rendered in Finnish. This required textual mediation between the prescribed Swedish language of the court protocol, and the non-standard spoken Finnish in the courtrooms. The aim is to examine the embedding strategies, retention patterns, and textual mediation in the multilingual writing of 17th-century Finnish court scribes. The results show that Finnish is retained for especially pertinent or untranslatable witness statements. At the end of the 17th century, the use of parallel Swedish translations and clarifications to Finnish items increased. It is argued that this increase is due to the imposition of autocracy in 1680 and a concomitant push towards monolingual Swedish uniformity within the entire realm.

L’inoculation dans les périodiques suédois au dix-huitième siècle

This article examines the views on the inoculation of smallpox as they were presented in the Swedish periodical press during the second half of the eighteenth century. The analysis is based on digitized newspapers available in the online press databases of the Swedish and Finnish national libraries. The historical Swedish realm is an interesting case with regard to inoculation. First, extensive and systematic population records and statistics exist for both parts of the realm – Sweden and Finland – since the eighteenth century, an era when also the elementary foundations of a medical infrastructure and administration were cast. Second, as a part of the political and scientific interest in demography, inoculation was strongly promoted by the central administration and became a central element of public health policies that involved both medical professionals and local officials, including ministers and sacristans of the Lutheran church. Third, during the latter half of the 1760s, Sweden experienced an unprecedented moment of freedom of the press, which resulted in a strong development of the periodical and daily printed press. The newspapers analysed here very clearly reflect the proximity of politics, academia, and the press, in a large country with a relatively small but rapidly growing population and an even smaller educated elite. From the very first mentions in the 1750s onwards, inoculation was presented exclusively positively in the Swedish press, which reported the progress of the procedure in England and on the European continent. It was described as a victory of science and as an enlightened invention that could reduce excess mortality particularly among children. During the decade following the first inoculation in Sweden in 1754, no critical or sceptical views on inoculation appeared in the press, and the only concerns expressed were on how to counter religious arguments against the procedure and how to convince the peasants to inoculate themselves and their children. After the initial enthusiasm and optimism, the press expressed an increasingly acute awareness of the huge challenges associated with the necessity to inoculate the rural populations. In the 1790s and early 1800s, the press thus reported in detail on the situation of specific dioceses and parishes and on the number of inoculations and deaths respectively, which strengthens the impression that inoculation and demography were not only politically relevant but also something that would engage the enlightened reader. The interest of the Swedish case is precisely here: inoculation was presented extremely positively, as a matter of utmost importance for national progress, welfare and public health. The same enthusiasm and faith in the redemptive potential of science can be observed in the press immediately after the introduction of vaccination in the first years of the nineteenth century.

Sweden, Inc.: Temporal Sovereignty of the Realm and People from the Middle Ages to Modernity

Sweden, Inc.: Temporal Sovereignty of the Realm and People from the Middle Ages to Modernity

In Defence of the Absent King. Baroness Ebba Stenbock and the Fight for King Sigismund, 1597–1599

ABSTRACT The present article deals with the political agency of Baroness Ebba Stenbock, the widow of Klaus Fleming, in the power struggle of the 1590s, when Duke Charles and King Sigismund were struggling for the throne of the Swedish Realm. Widow of the most ardent supporter of King Sigismund, Baroness Ebba became famous for participating in the politics of the time and even in the defense of the Turku Castle against the troops of the Duke. After the Baroness had been imprisoned and taken to Stockholm, she nevertheless received and sent messages to help the cause of the King. This article analyses the role of an aristocratic widow who held no offices but who had important symbolic power after her husband, the Admiral and the Steward of Finland and Livonia. A careful analysis of scattered evidence sheds light on the agency of an aristocratic widow and her role in the turmoil of the late sixteenth century.

Urban Segregation in a Nordic Small Town in the Late-Seventeenth Century: Residential Patterns in Sortavala at the Eastern Borderland of the Swedish Realm

The general view of urban segregation in pre-modern towns has been that the wealthy lived near the administrative and economic center(s), while the poor were pushed to the limits of the town. This approach has been questioned by studies proving that urban spaces were socially mixed. This dilemma has been studied here by examining in detail the urban segregation in one small town, Sortavala, at the eastern borderland of the Swedish realm. The analysis shows that the town space was bipolarly segregated. The “gentry,” officeholders and the like, lived near the market square and town hall; the wealthy burghers along the main street. However, even the poorest taxpayers lived among the wealthy and those of high social rank. The segregation was relative: the proportion of the wealthy grew in the grid plan in the town center; the settlements growing “freely” outside the original grid plan were for the poor only.

Wreckage recycled. Salvage auctions and their economic impact in eighteenth century Sweden

ABSTRACT In 1729, the privately owned Diving and Salvage Company gained a national monopoly for sea salvage in the Swedish Realm, a position it held until 1803. The Company sold all salvaged ships and goods in public auctions, creating a lively salvage market in Swedish and Finnish port towns. In this article, I examine these auctions and their economic impact in two towns, Visby and Helsinki. Via effective organisation and skilful advertising, the Company was able to sell large quantities of salvaged ships, ship parts, and cargo to a large pool of buyers. The auctions had large economic impact and were an especially important factor in the late eighteenth century rise of shipping and shipbuilding in both Helsinki and Visby. The local merchants controlled the auctions and bought all ship material in bulk, recycling it to the new-built ships in their dockyards.

The elusive Finn: ethnic identities, source criticism and the early history of Northern Sweden in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography

ABSTRACT The earliest history of the Swedish Realm’s northern regions has long been contested in historiography. This article primarily analyses views in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography concerning the origins of Finns in this region, in terms of source usage and ethnic identities. Gothicist views, emphasizing Swedish greatness were based on biblical notions of a postdiluvial settlement, linking sources from classical antiquity to Sweden via etymological comparisons. Combined with a reliance on Icelandic sagas and the uncritical use of secondary sources, these notions gave rise, among others, to the idea of an ancient, partially Finnish, Amazon warrior realm in Ostrobothnia. Conceptions surrounding the origins of Birkarl tax collectors were mostly based on traditions collected in the early 1600s, and later that century, they became associated with a migration of Finns to the north thought to have taken place in the late 13th century. Finns were given a role in the region’s history even within Gothicist historiography too. The ethnicity of these early settlements does not seem to have been overly emphasized though – indeed the boundary between Finns and Swedes was seen more as something fluid – indicating that ethnosymbolist theories of nationalism overstate the importance of ethnic identity in early modern Sweden.

Staatlichen Zölle - Portorium und Lizent - in den Städten den schwedischen Ostseeprovinzen

State Duties - Portorium and Licence - in the Towns of the Swedish Baltic ProvincesThe early modern mercantilist state focused on developing and exercising control over industrial and agricultural production as well as engaging in economic activities involving internal and external trade while collecting taxes and customs duties in order to fill the treasury. In the 16th-17th centuries, rapidly developing Sweden was no exception. It was in constant need of funds to support its growing bureaucratic apparatus and its army. From 1561, additional funds had to be allocated to retain and govern its expanding overseas territories. Trade and agriculture were Sweden’s principal source of income from its Baltic provinces. Therefore, it was deemed important to create an environment conducive to trade in order to generate greater tax and custom s revenues for the state. The customs tariffs of the Baltic Sea towns as well as the common customs system in Tallinn, Narva and Nyen arose from the state’s interest in bringing Western European andRussian trade back to the Baltic Sea.The aim of the article is to look rnore closely at the state duties - portorium and licence fees, plus oktroy and Anlage duties in Riga - levied on goods in the ports of the Baltic provinces of the Swedish realm, mainly Estonia, Livonia and Ösel (Saaremaa). The archival sources used in this study are the published and unpublished laws of the Swedish central authorities and the customs and account books which survive from the 17th Century. Of these, the most important ones were special customs and license ledgers from Estonia, Livonia, Ingria and Ösel in which the state receipts for licence duties and portorium from Riga, Tallinn, Narva, Nyen, Pärnu, Haapsalu and Kuressaare were registered. Separate Anlage duty records were kept in Riga. From the early 1630s, the account books of the governorates (ledgers, verifications and journals) also included state customs receipts, but each province was considered as a whole, without distinguishing separate towns. Data on portorium receipts can also be found in the town council archives, as the state ceded a third or even half of the customs receipts to the local town councils.Customs duties constituted one-third of the state’s revenues in the province of Estonia and one half or more in Livonia. The most important state customs were the portorium and licence duty (and the Anlage duty in Riga). While portorium was gencrally divided equally with the town where it was collected, licence duty was retained by the state in its entirety. Lesser duties were collected under the name Ungelder, and theamount and volume o f these increased over time. Generally, portorium duty brought in less revenue than licence duty. Sea customs tariffs, whichoften differed from town to town, formed a complex System. From 1648, only Tallinn, Narva and Nyen constituted a common customs region with lower customs tariffs than in Riga and Pärnu.

WOOD SPECIES AND THE QUESTION OF ORIGIN: REASSESSING THE SCULPTURE PRODUCTION IN THE DIOCESE OF TURKU (ÅBO) DURING THE 14TH CENTURY

This paper deals with choices of wood species in the 14th centurypolychrome sculptures in the diocese of Turku (Åbo), Finland, theeasternmost part of the Swedish Realm in the Middle Ages. The aim ofthe article is to draw an overall picture of the wood use in sculptureand discuss the emergence of the local workshops in the diocese.This is done by presenting new wood definitions and by taking theseinto account the when analysing the sculptures’ style and form.The emphasis on the research is on sculptures previously definedas carved from birch and which thus are determined as Finnish orNordic of their origin. The methods for defining the wood specieshave been ocular observation and microscopy analysis. The choiceof wood is approached from the perspective of the wood speciesavailability in the area and suitability for carving. The results of theinvestigation indicate that in addition to oak, and instead of birch,particularly alder (Alnus) was used in the locally manufactured sacralsculptures, and in some cases using oak sculptures as models. Alderwas possibly favored due to its good availability and inexpensivenessas well as workability. It can, however not be ruled out, that sculpturesof alder may have been imported to the bishopric as well.

Kuivatun viljan varastoinnin maa

Tuoreen ja kostean viljan varastoiminen on aina ollut haasteellista, sillä se pilaantuu helposti. Jos nykyäänkin viljaa halutaan varastoida pitkäaikaisesti, viljan kosteus pitää saada riittävän alhaiseksi. Kuivauksen tarve riippui siitä, kuinka kuivaa vilja on korjattaessa ja miten kuivaksi se voitiin saada pelkästään ulkokuivauksella. Pohjoisissa olosuhteissa ulkokuivaus on haasteellista, minkä vuoksi Suomessa, Baltiassa ja Venäjällä vilja on pyritty kuivaamaan keinotekoisesti riihien avulla jo vuosisatojen ajan. Riihet olivat rakenteeltaan yksinkertaisia hirsirakennuksia, joiden sisällä oli uuni ja parret. Riihen lämmittäminen vaati paljon polttopuuta ja käyttäjiltään taitoa, mitkä tekijät osaltaan rajoittivat tekniikan leviämistä. Vaikka riihikuivauksen tekniikka on ollut pitkään tunnettu, sen laajempaa merkitystä ei tästä huolimatta ole tutkimuksissa juuri käsitelty.
 Tässä artikkelissa riihikuivausta tarkastellaan kuivatun viljan ja sen varastoinnin näkökulmasta. Ruotsin valtakunnassa kuivattua viljaa hankittiin suuret määrät kruununmakasiineihin, joihin tarvittiin varmuusvarastoja sekä sotien että katojen varalle. Tutkimuksen on selvitetty, miksi varastoon hankittiin nimenomaan riihikuivattua viljaa ja miten paljon sitä määrällisesti oli makasiineissa. Tutkimusajanjaksona on hattujen sodan ja Pommerin sodan välinen rauhan aika (1743–1757). Maantieteellisesti tutkimus kattaa Pommeria lukuun ottamatta koko Ruotsin valtakunnan eli nykyiset Suomen ja Ruotsin alueet.
 Tutkimuksesta käy ilmi, että suurin osa Ruotsin valtakunnan kruununmakasiineissa olleesta viljasta oli tutkimusajanjaksolla riihikuivattua. Selvimmin tämä näkyi Suomen makasiineissa, joissa oli vain riihikuivattua ruista lukuun ottamatta Ruotsista vuonna 1750 tuotua viljaa. Vaikeudet tämän tuontiviljan varastoimisessa ja hyödyntämisessä osoittavat sen, miten tottumattomia Suomessa oltiin kuivaamattomaan viljan käyttöön. Myös Ruotsin puolella valtakuntaa keskeisimmissä varastoissa, Tukholmassa ja Karlskronassa, pääosa viljasta oli riihikuivattua. Koska Ruotsissa riihikuivausta ei juuri harjoitettu, vilja piti hankkia varastoihin muualta. Riihikuivattua viljaa saatiin Suomesta sekä veroina että ostoina. Erityisesti Pohjanmaalta tuotua laadukasta Vaasan ruista arvostettiin Ruotsissa. Suurin osa Tukholman makasiineihin tuodusta riihikuivatusta viljasta oli kuitenkin peräisin ilmeisesti Baltiasta. Kuivatun viljan varmuusvarastoinnille oli Ruotsin valtakunnassa 1700-luvulla tarvetta, sillä valtakunta oli riippuvainen viljan tuonnista. Usein toistuneet kadot ja sodankäynnin tarpeet edellyttivät, että varastoissa oli jatkuvasti viljaa pahimman varalle.

Clandestine commerce: retailing contraband textiles in late eighteenth-century Sweden

ABSTRACTThis article looks at how contraband was retailed in Sweden between the 1760s and the 1800s and explores how widespread this trade was. It draws on material from the Swedish customs office court records and explores three different retailing channels for contraband that emerge from the material – pedlars, fairs and shops. Officially, these retail outlets were quite distinct from each other, governed by strict regulations as to what and how wares should be traded. This article posits that through the support of their consumers retailers managed to break free from the trade regulations and were able to expand their stock with foreign illegal wares, leading to the dissemination of contraband across the Swedish realm.

Nordic Latin Manuscript Fragments: The Destruction and Reconstruction of Medieval Books. Ed. by Åslaug Ommundsen and Tuomasä Heikkil

National collections of medieval manuscripts are, at their best, spurious accounts of the history of European book production. The collections of manuscripts they now preserve, and the state in which those manuscripts survive, are nearly always born out of the characteristic vagaries of antiquarian interest, ideological bias, historical catastrophe, and random chance. Perhaps nowhere is this fact more apparent than in the national collections of the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. These nations share closely linked histories which have affected the survival of their medieval manuscripts in such a peculiar way that their situation may in fact be unique. Following the end of the Swedish War of Liberation in 152.3, the whole of the Nordic region was divided into two realms, the Danish Realm (including modern Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and the southern tip of Sweden), and the Swedish Realm (including modern Sweden and Finland). Both realms were enthusiastic participants in the Reformation, and Latin church manuscripts—now considered obsolete and reflecting poor ideology—were quickly and efficiently repurposed into a nearly inexhaustible source of binding materials for state documents. Government officials in both realms developed a practice of cutting out folios from these old books to cover and bind the unprecedented number of accounts they were now required to keep, rather than paying for fresh parchment to do the job. The practice was all-encompassing, lasting for over 150 years and reducing virtually all of the Nordic Latin manuscripts to mere fragments.

A Quantitative Approach to Book-Printing in Sweden and Finland, 1640–1828

Several cities in Sweden have been providing book-printing facilities since the 1640s. In our quantitative and explorative analysis of library catalogs from the National Library of Sweden and the National Library of Finland we identify the general trends in publishing, how book-printing has been affected by political events, and how printing developed at different paces in different parts of the realm. We have developed a new method for analyzing the totality of publishing through extensive data harmonization and comprehensive statistical analysis, and by treating library catalogs not as an endpoint of bibliographic research but as an inherently rich source of information. This facilitated the quantitative assessment of printing in the Swedish realm based on the metadata contained in library catalogs. Our data-driven approach to the transformation of public discourse demonstrates that whereas the amount of printed material grew steadily, political ruptures affected the development of printing. We also suggest that the culture of books and printing is best understood through the dynamics of competing intellectual hubs consisting of the university cities and the political center in Stockholm. This perspective further challenges the dominant, nationally delineated approach in book history.

The Long History of Lutheranism in Scandinavia. From State Religion to the People’s Church

Abstract As the main religion of Finland, but also of entire Scandinavia, Lutheranism has a centuries-long history. Until 1809 Finland formed the eastern part of the Swedish Kingdom, from 1809 to 1917 it was a Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire, and in 1917 Finland gained independence. In the 1520s the Lutheran Reformation reached the Swedish realm and gradually Lutheranism was made the state religion in Sweden. In the 19th century the Emperor in Russia recognized the official Lutheran confession and the status of the Lutheran Church as a state church in Finland. In the 20th century Lutheran church leaders preferred to use the concept people’s church. The Lutheran Church is still the majority church. In the beginning of 2015, some 74 percent of all Finns were members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. In this issue of Perichoresis, Finnish historians interested in the role of church and Christian faith in society look at the religious history of Finland and Scandinavia. The articles are mainly organized in chronological order, starting from the early modern period and covering several centuries until the late 20th century and the building of the welfare state in Finland. This introductory article gives a brief overview of state-church relations in Finland and presents the overall theme of this issue focusing on Finnish Lutheranism. Our studies suggest that 16th and early 17th century Finland may not have been quite so devoutly Lutheran as is commonly claimed, and that late 20th century Finland may have been more Lutheran than is commonly realized.

The 18th-century traditions of representation in a new age of revolution

What happened to shared historical experiences in the discursive processes of constitutional reform in Sweden and Finland? This article examines the use of 18th-century history in early 20th-century politics. Building on a long-term survey of Swedish and Finnish estate and parliamentary debates, it analyses the political implications of differing national historiographies in the two successor states of the 18th-century Swedish realm, focusing on how the ancient past and collective (and often selective) memories of the Age of Absolutism, the Age of Liberty and the Gustavian Age were used by parliamentarians in constitutional debates. The analysis demonstrates how the Finnish polity continued to be profoundly influenced by these 18th-century constitutions even after the Russian Revolution, while Sweden took the post-French Revolution constitution of 1809 as its point of departure. In both countries, interpretations of the long 18th century were ideologically motivated in an age of the parliamentarization of government and the democratization of the representative system. This leads us to a discussion of the history-political significance of the common and differing understandings of representative government in the two interconnected countries.

Anders Chydenius (aut.), Maren Jonasson and Pertti Hyttinen (eds), Anticipating The Wealth of Nations: The selected works of Anders Chydenius (1729–1803)

During the last half of the 18th century—when Finland was still part of the Swedish realm—the Finnish clergyman, politician, and economist Anders Chydenius was an important figure in Swedish social life. Only a few of his publications have earlier been available to non-Swedish readers, so we should welcome the book under review, Anticipating The Wealth of Nations: The selected works of Anders Chydenius (1729-1803), edited by Maren Jonasson and Pertti Hyttinen, translated by Peter C. Hogg. The...

Claiming Authority: Criminal Procedure in Seventeenth-Century Swedish Livonia

What happened to criminal procedure in Livonia during the Swedish period? And to what extent is the development specifically linked to Sweden, or to a European developement more generally? Livonia became part of Sweden through the Truce of Altmark in 1629, after having belonged to Poland for almost 70 years (1561–1629). The Livonian Confederation, dissolved in 1561 as a result of the Polish-Swedish war, had been a loose entity consisting of five relatively independent units (the lands of the Livonian Order, the Archbishopric of Riga, and the Bishoprics of Courland, Dorpat, and Osel-Wiek), which were also internally anything but effectively centralised. The lack of centralisation had brought independence to the local land-owning nobility, and the tradition had very much survived the Polish period. The tradition of the nobility’s great independence continued in the Swedish period, not the least because Swedish noblemen now held high stakes themselves, having been enfeoffed on large estates in the conquered Livonia as rewards for their war services. Their position was, therefore, considerably stronger than that of the nobility in Sweden proper. Another facet adding to the Livonian nobility’s independence was that the province was never incorporated into the Swedish Realm, which comprised only Sweden and Finland. This meant that the Livonians were not represented in the Swedish Diet, the local Ritterschaft holding its own Landtag instead.1

Eesti- ja Liivimaa talurahva olukorrast Rootsi aja lõpus

Eesti- ja Liivimaa talurahva olukorrast Rootsi aja lõpus

Riigitaalrite kasutusest Rootsi Läänemereprovintsides 17. sajandil

The use of riksdaler in the Baltic provinces of the Swedish realm in the seventeenth century This article gives an overview of the use of riksdaler in the Baltic provinces of the Swedish realm from the end of the fi rst third of the seventeenth century to the beginning of the eighteenth century. The article relies mainly on the customs books of port towns in the Baltic provinces of the Swedish realm, and to a lesser extent on account books from Estland, Livland, and Osel (Saaremaa), individual contracts for purchase or sale, lease agreements, and other archival materials containing monetary transfers. According to these documents, coins with different values circulated the Baltic provinces in the seventeenth century, resulting in different financial systems in Livland and Estland. Tallinn was clearly part of the Swedish financial system, since Estland had established close economic relations with the mother country. But the lack of direct economic relations between Sweden and Riga, as well as Livland in general, meant that the use of Swedish currency in those territories was not widespread. Commercial contacts with Poland-Lithuania and Russia were preferred to those with Sweden. As a result, Polish coinage was used in Riga. However, it was benefi cial for central authorities to have financial proceedings between the province and the state (customs, taxes, rent, etc.) conducted with common coin currency: riksdaler (for everyday use) and silver daler (which served as a unit of account). The number of ore silvermynt (rundstuck) as well as other silver and copper coins in riksdaler changed with time, offi cially remaining between 36 to 64 ore in the seventeenth century. The exchange rate of silver daler used as a unit of account was fi xed at 32 ore and did not vary over time. Since riksdaler had to be used for day-to-day dealings, it resulted in a permanent shortage of those coins. Consequently, the need to mint more coins changed their value, in other words, there were more ore in riksdaler according to the market exchange rate than according to the official exchange rate. Th e rate diff erence fluctuated between two to almost ten ore. Th ese phenomena were characteristic to both the Swedish mother country as well as its overseas provinces, although there were significant variations between different towns and provinces (see also the table). In practice, it meant that the official exchange rates of coins deviated from reality. As demand grew, central authorities had to consider the actual exchange rate and increase the content of ore in riksdaler over time. KEYWORDS: Estonian history, Swedish history, monetary history, early modern period, 17th century. ENN KUNG (b. 1963) is Associate Professor at the Institute of History and Archaeology, University of Tartu.53 Correspondence: Institute of History and Archaeology, University of Tartu, Ulikooli 18, 50090 Tartu, Estonia. E-mail: enn.kung@ut.ee

Christoph Prescher – riiklik ajalehekirjutaja ja uudistekaupmees 1680. aastate alguse Riias

Christoph Prescher – official newswriter and information merchant in Riga in the early 1680s The profession of a newswriter or a news transmitter (Zeitungsschreiber in German), who collected and sold information, was born in the context of expanding and intensifying postal networks during the sixteenth century in Europe. Professional newswriters (also called Zeitunger, Novellanten, or Avisenschreiber in the German-speaking areas) were active in the market towns situated in the most important junctions of postal roads. Information became an object of trade in early modern Europe – the public sale of news or news mediums became a widespread business that proceeded, for example, in the cultural area of Germany or the Netherlands on private initiative and was a supplementary activity to the person’s main profession. Countries with a strong central power, including the Swedish realm, gave the information business to certain persons who were under the control of the state. This article observes the changes in the news market of Riga in the beginning of the 1680s. In 1680, Christoph Prescher was assigned as the official newswriter of Riga. He was an official acting under the royal privilege, and he had been granted the exclusive position for issuing a newspaper. As the official newswriter, Prescher diff ers from the average early modern newspaper merchant acting on private initiative as the latter was involved in the sale of information as a supplementary business. This article discusses whether the royal privilege itself was enough to fulfil the task successfully and to earn a living. As the official newswriter, Prescher had to face economic difficulties which he tried to overcome by finding new readers outside Riga and Livland and by advertising his newspaper in Tallinn. However, one year aft er the first issue of the newspaper, the financial difficulties had not dissolved. To exempt himself from the restricted role of a newswriter, Prescher tried to find supplementary outputs: he offered to carry out the restructuring of the Riga postal office (which had been stripped of the right to trade with news), as both hoped to restore the normal situation in effect prior to the year 1680. It seems that the problems of the official newswriter were solved by the end of the 1680s, when the newspaper had developed a large number of subscribers in the provinces of Estland, Livland, and Ingermanland, in addition to the readers in Riga. KEYWORDS: Baltic history, Swedish history, early modern period, communication, newspapers, Riga, 17th century. KAAREL VANAMÖLDER (b. 1981) is a Lecturer of Estonian history at the Narva College, University of Tartu. Correspondence: Narva College, University of Tartu, Raekoja plats 2, Narva 20307, Estonia. E-mail: kaarel.vanamolder@ut.ee