Fairs and economic decline. Marketplaces, economic regulations and social transformation in Sweden

Description

Markets and markets have been studied extensively in late medieval Europe, particularly in Italy, France, England and the Netherlands. Studies had shown that markets led to economic growth, especially innovation, property rights and the prerequisite for long-term economic growth. In Western Europe, the market declined from 1500 onwards.

In Sweden, the market increased dramatically from the 1600s and probably (probably) contributed to economic progress and strengthened property rights. In Stockholm, the provinces and in places where it was far away, the state has granted permission for annual fairs, one or two times a year. There were many fairs and markets in Sweden, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the beginning of the century, many of the marketplaces were dismantled or had lost their role. However, there is no comprehensive research in this area, except for sociologist Börje Hanssen's dissertation from 1952, where he accounts for markets in Simrishamn and Örkelljunga in the late 1700s. How dismantled looked like is almost unknown.

The purpose of the proposed project is to examine the role of marketplaces in Sweden in the light of the social transformation of the 1700s and 1800s, with its market integration and deregulation, and to try to explain why they declined in the 1800s.