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- Rönnbäck, Klas, 1974
(author)
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"Alltid något att visa upp för nationens ögon" - Franska tomten och den svenska jakten på kolonier
- 2007
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In: Ord & Bild. - 0030-4492. ; :3-4, s. 63-69
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- I centrala Göteborg kan man än idag finna ett kvarter vid namn Franska tomten. Bakom namnet ligger en mer än 200 år gammal och av de flesta bortglömd historia. I Göteborgs stadsmuseums stora verk om stadskärnans historik finns bara en kort mening om att det här under 1700-talets slut fanns särskilda magasin för franska handelsvaror. De franska varumagasinen har dock en längre historia, som knyter an till Europas kolonisering av Amerika.
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- Rönnbäck, Klas, 1974
(author)
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An early-modern consumer revolution in the Baltic?
- 2009
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In: Consumption, power and culture in the early modern Atlantic world, June 4-5, 2009, Åbo Akademi, Finland.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The European consumer revolution has gained increasing attention in recent years. This paper goes beyond the previous scholarly focus upon Western Europe in general, and Britain in particular, by studying the consumer revolution in the Baltic region in general, and Denmark and Sweden in particular. Previous research has underestimated the quantities of ‘new luxuries’ imported into the Baltic region. Disaggregating the region, the empirical evidence shows that the Danish population consumed approximately as much of for example sugar as the British did, already by the late 18th century. The paper argues that this to a large extent can be attributed to the fact that real wages in Denmark were comparatively high at the time, even approaching the levels paid to workers in high-wage countries in north-western Europe. The high wages, together with a number of other factors, thus enabled an early consumer revolution at least in this part of the Baltic.
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- Rönnbäck, Klas, 1974
(author)
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Commerce and Colonisation: Studies of Early Modern Merchant Capitalism in the Atlantic Economy
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation consists of four chapters which study early modern merchant capitalism, with a special focus upon the developing Atlantic economy. The introductory chapter is followed by chapter 2, studying the issue of market integration and price convergence in inter-continental trade during the early modern period. Previously, scholars have claimed that there is no evidence of price convergence prior to the 1820s. This chapter on the contrary finds that there is ample evidence of this for most of the commodities studied. The issue of an early modern globalisation can thus not be dismissed as easily as it often has been done previously. Chapter 3 studies the profits to be made from colonialism for various agents in Europe. Previous research on Britain has shown that while individual merchants and planters might have gained from colonialism, the British state and consumers had to pay much of the bill. The chapter contrasts previous studies by looking at the Danish colonies in the West Indies. The conclusion is that, in contrast to the British case, the, all Danish agents were able to profit from colonialism in the West Indies. The Danish case might thus put the British experience into perspective. Chapter 4 focuses upon the balance of payments for trade on the Baltic. Common know-ledge has it that key Baltic exports largely were paid for in bullion during the early modern period. The importance of colonial goods have however been underestimated in previous research. By the late 18th century, the chapter finds, just the sugar re-exported from Western Europe to the Baltic was worth approximately half of the value of grains exported in the opposite direction. The chapter concludes that re-exports of colonial goods increasingly contributed positively to the balance of payments for the Western European nations’ trade on the Baltic. Chapter 5, finally, studies the trade in colonial goods on the Baltic from the perspective of environmental economic history. The Baltic was for a long period of time a net exporter of acreage, in the form of bulk commodities such as grains and forestry products. The chapter shows that increasing imports of colonial commodities required an growing amount of overseas ghost acreage. The trade, this chapter concludes, might however be understood less by an American abundance of land, than through the low price of enslaved labour in the Americas.
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- Rönnbäck, Klas, 1974
(author)
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En amputerad historia
- 2008
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In: Ord & Bild. ; :4
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)
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- Rönnbäck, Klas, 1974
(author)
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Flexibility and protectionism. Swedish trade in sugar during the early modern era
- 2006
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Sugar was of the utmost importance for the development of a transatlantic trade during the early modern era. This working paper explores the impact of institutions and institutional changes of the colonial trade in sugar focusing on one country on the European semi-periphery, namely Sweden. Through protectionist policies, Swedish merchants were able to catch a significant share of the Baltic trade in colonial goods, despite the country having no colonies of its own. This in turn enabled a diversification of the sources of colonial goods. Trade in sugar became highly flexible during the period, rapidly changing in response to a changing international market. Protectionist policies also enabled the development of a domestic sugar manufacture, which flourished during the late 18th and early 19th century. When Swedish trade policy was liberalized around the 1850s, the domestic industry went through hard times from the international competition. The introduction of sugar beet would however have even more far-reaching consequences for the international trade in sugar. Swedish sugar imports collapsed by more than 98 per cent in less than ten years when domestic production of sugar beet had gotten off to a start at the end of the 19th century. The preliminary conclusions form the first output from the work on a thesis concerned with the trade in colonial goods of actors in the European semi-periphery. One future aim is to compare the colonial trade in sugar of Sweden and Denmark.
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