Flexibility and protectionism. Swedish trade in sugar during the early modern era
Sugar was of the utmost importance for the development of a transatlantic trade during the early modern era. This working paper explores the impact of institutions and institutional changes of the colonial trade in sugar focusing on one country on the European semi-periphery, namely Sweden. Through protectionist policies, Swedish merchants were able to catch a significant share of the Baltic trade in colonial goods, despite the country having no colonies of its own. This in turn enabled a diversification of the sources of colonial goods. Trade in sugar became highly flexible during the period, rapidly changing in response to a changing international market. Protectionist policies also enabled the development of a domestic sugar manufacture, which flourished during the late 18th and early 19th century. When Swedish trade policy was liberalized around the 1850s, the domestic industry went through hard times from the international competition. The introduction of sugar beet would however have even more far-reaching consequences for the international trade in sugar. Swedish sugar imports collapsed by more than 98 per cent in less than ten years when domestic production of sugar beet had gotten off to a start at the end of the 19th century. The preliminary conclusions form the first output from the work on a thesis concerned with the trade in colonial goods of actors in the European semi-periphery. One future aim is to compare the colonial trade in sugar of Sweden and Denmark.
Introduction: This working paper deals with the terms of Swedish transatlantic trade in colonial commodities, during the early modern era. The paper will mainly deal with sugar, since this might arguably be considered the single most important commodity of the colonial trade.Long-distance trade in general, and trade in colonial goods in particular, were considered important components of mercantilist policy, both because of the potential impact upon the nation’s balance of trade, and because colonial trade might provide commodities impossible to produce domestically.
Author: Klas Rönnbäck
Source: Göteborg University
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