Älvsborg Ransom (1613)
The Second Älvsborg Ransom (
Payment
The ransom of one million rixdollars was the equivalent in value of four years of Swedish harvests.[4] It had to be paid in four installments, and in rixdollars, an international currency not in everyday use in Sweden. Most of the rixdollars were obtained by selling Swedish copper on the international market, but the government also had to take Dutch loans of altogether 250,000 rixdollars. In the end Sweden managed to pay the ransom.[5] The payment was financed by a severe extra tax paid during six years by almost all persons above the age of 15, including the royalty and the nobility. The only exempts were the tenants of noble seat farms, and active duty soldiers.[6] The Danes had hoped that Sweden would not be able to pay, thereby losing its outlet to the Atlantic.[7]
The Älvsborg tax
The extra tax financing the Älvsborg ransom was collected through a specially created organization outside the normal revenue system, but in cooperation with it. A special government agency under four Lords of the Realm was created, and provincial tax commissioners appointed. The commissioners organized compulsory parish meetings, where all the peasants had to attend, together with the bailiff and the vicar. New lists of taxpayers were created based on the bailiff's old tax records and the vicar's church records. This extensive apparatus managed to include most taxable individuals, although unmarried men of military age did the utmost to not be entered, to escape future drafts. Those who did not or could not pay, had their property confiscated, whether nobility or peasant.[6]
The tax had to be paid in good rixdollars, domestic or foreign, or in good
Tax rates
Tax subject | Annual tax |
---|---|
The Queen Dowager |
According to her will and propensity |
The King | 32 rixdollars per 100 dalers (48%) of Crown revenues. |
The Hereditary Princes | 32 rixdollars per 100 dalers (48%) of revenues. |
Nobility of the Realm | 32 rixdollars per armed horseman levied to the King |
Treasurers, masters of the mint, clerks of the mint, customers | 50 rixdollars each |
Bishops, controllers, secretaries | 40 rixdollars each |
Captains, lieutenants and ensigns of horse | 20 rixdollars each |
16 rixdollars each* | |
Bailiffs and clerks | 16 rixdollars each |
Foreign merchants | 16 rixdollars each, and then 2 rixdollars per 100 dalers turnover |
Each ship arriving from abroad | 1 rixdollar per last, and 2 rixdollars per mast, at each arrival |
Captains, lieutenants and ensigns of foot | 12 rixdollars each |
Underlagmän and lagläsare (local judges) | 12 rixdollars each |
school masters |
8 rixdollars each |
Peasant-lensmen | 8 rixdollars each |
Burghers , including those who have lived in towns now ravaged |
2 rixdollars per assessed öre in tax |
Kopparbergsmän (copper miners) | 2 rixdollars each, and then 3 rixdollars per mine part |
Järnbergsmän (iron miners) | 2 rixdollars each, and then 2 rixdollars per mine or furnace part |
Town curates | 4 rixdollars each |
Tailors, cobblers, skinners and other artisans without their own workshops | 4 rixdollars each |
Sergeants and other non-commissioned officers, under-bailiffs and under-clerks | 3 rixdollars each |
Parish curates | 2 rixdollars each |
Private soldiers of horse and foot, yeomen and others of the soldiery possessing farms, propertied burghers and peasants, whether freeholders or tenants, whether in possession of a whole or a half holding | 2 rixdollars each |
farmhands from 15 years of age, whether serving, staying with the parents, or being his own man |
1 rixdollar each |
Serving women or maids over 15 years of age, in town or country | ½ rixdollar |
Source:[8][9] | * The bishop should adjust the tax according to wealth. |
References
- ^ "Älvsborgs lösen 1571 och 1613." Riksarkivet. Retrieved 2016-12-30.
- Göta Älv, but an earlier settlement of the same name on the north bank of the river. See History of Gothenburg.
- ^ Meijer & al., Bernhard (1904–1926). Nordisk familjebok. Stockholm: Nordisk familjeboks förlag. Vol. 33, p. 1195. Retrieved 2016-12-07.
- ^ Derry, T. K. (1979). History of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, p. 104.
- ^ Roberts, Michael (1998). Gustavus Adolphus. London: Routledge, p. 35.
- ^ a b Palm, Lennart Andersson (2016). Sweden’s 17th century – a period of expansion or stagnation?. Institutionen för historiska studier, Goteborg. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
- ^ Scott, Franklin D. (1988). Sweden: the Nation's History. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, p. 168.
- ^ a b Geijer, Erik Gustaf (1836). Svenska folkets historia. Orebro: N.M. Lindhs boktryckeri, vol. 3, p. 40, n. 3.
- ^ Starbäck, Carl George & Bäckström, Per Olov (1885-1886). Berättelser ur svenska historien. Stockholm: F.O. Beijers förlag, vol. 4, p. 145, n. 1. Retrieved 2016-12-30.