Swedish Society in Change and the Commercial Policy in the 18th Century from the Perspective of Stockholm as a Capital and the Iron Trade.

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This research project aims at examining of some reasons why the 18th century Stockholm as a capital in the kingdom of Sweden (inclusive Finland) came to a stagnating metropolis in the Baltic World. In this perpose it is strategic and relevant to give a central attention both to the Skeppsbro nobles in Stockholm's old town, who were a handful of the wholesalers, and to the trade of bar iron as the most important export items. Many different kinds of regulations and laws according to the sprit of the times of mercantilism, e.g. so called Bothnian trading restriction, Navigation Act 1724, the hallmarking authorities or the Exchange office, and bans of import goods etc., gave Stockholm her special favourable and advantageous position at the expense of other domestic cities and places. But this policy which was driven by the Skeppsbro nobles belonging to the Hat Party caused some obstacles of the further growth of Stockholm. It depended on lack of the idea on free trade, even if it had limitations of the age. The monopolistic prosperity of the capital stimulated the Skeppsbro nobles to a conspicuous consumption, that made not only them aristocratic but also Stockholm stagnating, because other cities and groups of merchants as well as manufacturers had a strong desire of the deregulation of economic activities towards the coming of the new era, i.e. the industrialization in the mid-19th century.