Postgång på växlande villkor : det svenska postväsendets organisation under stormaktstiden

• This dissertation investigates the Swedish postal service, focusing on its organization from approximately 1600 to 1720. The purpose of the study is to explain why the Swedish state, at different points of time, chose one form of postal organization over another. The principle question of the dissertation has been: How was the Swedish postal service organized during the 1600s, what were the forms of organization chosen, and why did the state shift between these? In a broader perspective, the dissertation has investigated how the answers to these questions affect our perception of how the Swedish state organized its agencies in the seventeenth century. The analysis relies on a theoretical model inspired by economist Oliver E. Williamson’s transaction cost theory, modified to function for a study of seventeenth-century Swedish society. The concepts “market” and “hierarchy” is central to this theory. They denote the ways in which enterprises and agencies can be organized. How choices can be made between the two alternatives has been explained by the aid of a transaction cost analysis. The concept of market has been reformulated in the dissertation, and instead of market, the term “contract” has been used. This term denotes an organization where the crown handed over the leadership of the postal organization to some private individual. The analysis focuses on the shifts between the state’s centralized control of the postal organization, labeled hierarchy, and the above-mentioned form of contract. The principle question is why these shifts in the organization of the postal service took place, and what changes these shifts entailed. The investigation is based on a wide variety of sources, complementing material from the central administration — e.g. minutes, ordinances and fiscal material — with, for example, letters written by persons who were central actors in the Swedish state. The dissertation shows that the Swedish postal service during the 1600s was organized according to both contractual and hierarchical principles. During the period under research, the postal service alternated between being incorporated into the government administration and being contracted out to some private individual. The state occasionally relinquished control over the postal service, leaving it to entrepreneurs to handle. At other times, the state centralized the postal service’s administration, putting it under direct government control. The investigation has problematised a formerly standard picture of the Swedish postal service. Hereafter, the Swedish postal service must be regarded as an organization in which both models coexisted. The Swedish state tried both contract-oriented and hierarchical organizations during the 1600s; indeed the organization oscillated between these two poles.

• Popular Abstract in Swedish Det svenska postväsendet grundades 1636 genom en kunglig förordning om postbud. Under det följande århundradet byggdes postnätet ut över riket och alla större städer fick postkontor. Från början sköttes verksamheten av staten, men under stormaktstiden förändrades organisationen flera gånger och lades vid ett par tillfällen ut på entreprenad. I doktorsavhandlingen Postgång på växlande villkor undersöker historikern Magnus Linnarsson hur det svenska postväsendet var organiserat under 1600-talet. Med inspiration från modern organisationsteori analyserar han verksamheten med en uttalad ambition att belysa strukturerna och den dåtida ledningens strävanden. Undersökningen är koncentrerad till postväsendets olika organisationsformer och med hjälp av ett brett källmaterial kartläggs de olika överväganden och beslut som låg bakom postens olika organisationsmodeller. Resultaten visar hur administrationsformerna avlöste varandra och vilka argument som gavs för olika alternativ. Både privata och statliga organisationsformer var alternativ för den svenska statsledningen under 1600-talet och båda användes för att organisera posten. I ett vidare perspektiv visar undersökningen hur den svenska staten fungerade under stormaktstiden (1611–1721) och hur den staten organiserade vad vi i dag skulle kalla för offentliga verksamheter. Till skillnad från den tidigare ensidiga bilden av posten som ett typiskt statligt ämbetsverk tecknar Linnarsson här en mångfacetterad bild av postväsendet och de statliga myndigheterna under stormaktstiden. Avhandlingen fördjupar därför kunskaperna i ett förut relativt outforskat fält inom svensk historievetenskap.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Historia (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

History of Postal service

postal system

post office

mail

transaction costs

political transaction costs

early modern history

communication history

organizational history

organizations

Swedish history

administrative history.

Publikations- och innehållstyp

dok (ämneskategori)

vet (ämneskategori)