Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

fhs.se
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • 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
Liquidating government debt and creating a secondary asset market: Trading patterns, market behavior and prices on government liabilities in Sweden, c. 1719–1765
Swedish Defence University, Department of Military History, Military History Division. Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0009-0006-2185-2095
Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden, (SWE).
2023 (English)In: Financial History Review, ISSN 0968-5650, E-ISSN 1474-0052, Vol. 30, no 3, p. 355-379Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article studies a previously unknown asset market in eighteenth-century Sweden. It emerged as a result of a partial default in 1719, when large amounts of recently released fiat coins were converted into government liabilities. These could only be redeemed as a customs duty on international trade, the licent. As merchants had to acquire such assets to conduct their trade, tens of thousands of transactions were carried out on a secondary market over a period of more than 45 years. Networks of local merchants bought assets from initial holders and sold them on to intermediaries or merchants, who deposited the liabilities with a newly established government agency, the Debt Office. Here, hundreds of account holders could transfer the value of their deposits between them. When a licent payment was due, the amount was deducted from the merchant's account. Prices on the liabilities were low and sometimes volatile, but the long-term trend was rising. We have distinguished three types of market participants: a small group of very active users, most of them professional dealers or brokers; merchants who traded on a regular basis as they needed to pay the licent, or when a favorable opportunity appeared; and finally, those who traded sporadically. The emergence of this market was part of a financial expansion that occurred in many European countries at the same time, the closest equivalent being the segmented default in France after the abolition of John Law's system. This study aims to broaden our understanding of eighteenth-century financial developments, which have rarely been studied in a semi-peripheral European economy.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023. Vol. 30, no 3, p. 355-379
Keywords [en]
Sweden, eightteenth century, default, liquidation, asset market, emerging markets, paper money, financial development
National Category
Economic History
Research subject
Military History
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-12342DOI: 10.1017/s0968565024000015OAI: oai:DiVA.org:fhs-12342DiVA, id: diva2:1850887
Funder
Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation and Tore Browaldh Foundation, P18-0160Swedish Research Council, 2015-02029Available from: 2024-04-11 Created: 2024-04-11 Last updated: 2024-05-08Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Ericsson, Peter

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Ericsson, Peter
By organisation
Military History Division
In the same journal
Financial History Review
Economic History

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 114 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • 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