An institutional analysis of the swedish salt market, 1720-1862

Abstract

This article examines and evaluates two cases of intervention by the Swedish State in the Swedish salt market. The salt market is defined, institutionally, as all the rules and forms of organisation which influenced it. In the paper the most important institutional rules and organisations (economic, political and social) and their functions are considered. In evaluating the two cases of state intervention, the conclusions reached on the Swedish Navigation Act of 1724-1827, unlike that of earlier scholars, is favourable. No costs fell upon the Swedish general public, for example, in the form of higher salt prices. The carriage of the cargoes was shifted from English and Dutch vessels to Swedish vessels. The Act is therefore interpreted as an example of a successful protectionist policy rather than an impediment to the national economy. The State Salt Stores of the period 1774-1862 are here studied for the first time. They helped to reduce the negative effects caused by the acute scarcity of salt that occurred during periods of war and the disturbed flow of supply through unforeseeable shipwreck. However, when the risk of salt shortage diminished during the nineteenth century the need for this form of State collective insurance disappeared. © 1994 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.