Älvsborg Ransom (1613)
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The Second Älvsborg Ransom () was an
indemnity In contract law, an indemnity is a contractual obligation of one party (the ''indemnitor'') to compensate the loss incurred by another party (the ''indemnitee'') due to the relevant acts of the indemnitor or any other party. The duty to indemni ...
, stipulated in the 1613 Treaty of Knäred, which ended the Kalmar War. During the war the
Danes Danes (, ), or Danish people, are an ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. History Early history Denmark ...
had occupied the vital border fortress of Älvsborg Castle (near modern
Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
,
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
), and the
Swedes Swedes (), or Swedish people, are an ethnic group native to Sweden, who share a common ancestry, Culture of Sweden, culture, History of Sweden, history, and Swedish language, language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countries, ...
were required to pay the ransom in order to redeem the castle. According to the treaty, the ransom was one million silver rixdollars. The ransom would be financed by a nationwide
tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...
, which would be paid during each of the six years 1613–1618 by the entire population of Sweden. The Danes not only held Älvsborg Castle as a collateral for the ransom, but also the towns of New Lödöse, Old Lödöse and
Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
, as well as seven hundreds of
Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Vä ...
. Yet, since the return of Älvsborg was uppermost in the mind of the government, the ransom and the tax to pay for it has in history been named after this castle. Meijer & al., Bernhard (1904–1926). ''Nordisk familjebok''. Stockholm: Nordisk familjeboks förlag. Vol. 33, p. 1195.
Retrieved 2016-12-07.


Payment

The ransom of one million rixdollars was the equivalent in value of four years of Swedish
harvest Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...
s. 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 Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
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. 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 farm In Scandinavia, a seat farm or manor farm (; Norwegian language, Norwegian /; or ; ) was a farm where a nobility, nobleman had his permanent residence. They were found in the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Sweden, and ...
s, and active duty soldiers. The Danes had hoped that Sweden would not be able to pay, thereby losing its outlet to the Atlantic.Scott, Franklin D. (1988). ''Sweden: the Nation's History.'' Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, p. 168.


The Älvsborg tax

The extra tax financing the Älvsborg ransom was collected through a specially created organization outside the normal
revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of product (business), goods and services related to the primary operations of a business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some compan ...
system, but in cooperation with it. A special
government agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...
under four Lords of the Realm was created, and provincial tax commissioners appointed. The commissioners organized compulsory
parish meeting A parish meeting is a meeting all the electors in a civil parish in England are entitled to attend. In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish council, with ...
s, where all the peasants had to attend, together with the bailiff and the
vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...
. 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. Palm, Lennart Andersson (2016). ''Sweden’s 17th century – a period of expansion or stagnation?.'' Institutionen för historiska studier, Goteborg.
Retrieved 2016-12-31.
The tax had to be paid in good rixdollars, domestic or foreign, or in good
silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
; 2 lot, 1 quintin (~30 grams) of silver per rixdollar. Anyone who had not rixdollars, had to pay with viable Swedish coins, although not in less than half-daler coins; 6 marks or 1½ Swedish daler per rixdollar. The tax could also be paid in kind; one lispound (~8.5 kilograms) copper per 1½ rixdollars, one shippound (~136 kilograms) bar iron per 4 rixdollars, one tun (~147 litres) of
wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...
per 1½ rixdollars, one tun of
rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...
or
malt Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...
per rixdollar.


Tax rates


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvsborg Ransom Älvsborg Ransom Denmark–Sweden relations 17th century in Sweden 17th century in Denmark