ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS Uppsala Studies in Economic History, 108 Cover Pictures: Stockholms Post-Tidningar, No
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS Uppsala Studies in Economic History, 108 Cover pictures: Stockholms Post-Tidningar, No. 11, 7 Feb. 1771. Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm. From: Kungliga Biblioteket, http://www.kb.se (accessed: 1 December 2016). Recorded in The Gazette (London Gazette), issue 13802, 4–8 Aug. 1795. Reproduction: The Stationery Office, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, The National Archives, London. From: The Gazette, https://www.thegazette.co.uk (accessed: 10 January 2017). Inrikes Tidningar, No. 8, 21 Jan. 1820. Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm. From: Kungliga Biblioteket, http://www.kb.se (accessed: 1 December 2016). Cover illustration by author. Sarah Linden Pasay Stable Media in the Age of Revolutions Depictions of Economic Matters in British and Swedish State Newspapers, 1770–1820 Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Hörsal 1, Ekonomikum, Kyrkogårdsgatan 10, Uppsala, Friday, 3 March 2017 at 10:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in Swedish. Faculty examiner: Docent Joachim Östlund (Lunds universitet, Historiska institutionen). Abstract Pasay, S. L. 2017. Stable Media in the Age of Revolutions. Depictions of Economic Matters in British and Swedish State Newspapers, 1770–1820. Uppsala Studies in Economic History 108. 254 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9795-8. The dissertation examines how economic matters were depicted between 1770 and 1820 in two European kingdoms. Britain and Sweden are studied during this Age of Revolutions from the state’s perspective; state-managed newspapers are examined, one from Britain, the London Gazette, and two from Sweden, Stockholms Post-Tidningar and Inrikes Tidningar. These were stable types of media that transformed slowly alongside the changing popular press. State- managed newspapers were produced both to inform and manage the loyalty of populations. Aside from the continued development of the centralized state, this was also the time when Enlightenment ideals were spreading, the public sphere was transforming, notions of the nation and nationalism were developing, and communication strategies were changing; these concepts are the basis for the model of the development of modernity used in this study. Economic matters are seen as existing in a value-realm model that gradually disintegrated over time, expressing the birth of the modern world. This model included political, social- cultural, and technological values, in addition to economic matters. This disintegration involved a sense of uniformity. In both Britain and Sweden, economic objects, practices, ideas, and discourses received similar treatments over time. This process was, however, non-linear and not complete by the dawn of industrial transformation. The first two chapters discuss the theory and methodological approaches. The form, order, and content of the newspapers are analyzed to show how economic matters became separate or unembedded to varying degrees over a fifty-year time span. British and Swedish descriptions are compared, as well as how the other state was portrayed in the opposing newspapers. These observations are described in three empirical chapters, relating events and analyses from 1770 to 1775, 1790 to 1795, and 1815 to 1820. The results of this dissertation show how early modern economic matters can be viewed beyond quantitative contents as an expression of becoming modern, offering complimentary context. Advances in thinking about data generated modern numerical indicators, also reflected by form and order qualities. The unembeddedness of economic matters was an ongoing and non-linear process that was expressed by increased abstractness, separation, and emphasis. Keywords: economic language, Sweden, Britain, newspapers, public sphere, embeddedness, Enlightenment, modernity, London Gazette Sarah Linden Pasay, Department of Economic History, Box 513, Uppsala University, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden. © Sarah Linden Pasay 2017 ISSN 0346-6493 ISBN 978-91-554-9795-8 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-312465 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-312465) Contents List of Tables and Figures ................................................................................ 9 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ 11 CHAPTER 1. Economic Matters in an Early Modern World ........................ 15 1.1 Birth of Economic Matters in the Age of Revolutions ....................... 15 1.1.1 State of Disintegration and Uniformity ...................................... 19 1.1.2 Controlling the Public Sphere and Creating Legitimacy ............ 22 1.1.3 Economic Objects, Practices, Ideas, and Discourses ................25 1.1.4 Research Questions and Aims .................................................... 29 1.2 Representing a Revolutionary Age ..................................................... 29 1.2.1 Maturing States, Transitioning Presses, Learning Nations ......... 30 1.2.2 Expanding British State, Public, and Empire .............................. 35 1.2.3 Sweden’s Loss of Power, the Crown, and a Loyal Crowd ......... 37 1.3 Contextualizing Economy and Economic Matters ............................. 39 1.3.1 Modern Developments with Early Modern Origins ................... 39 1.3.2 British Economy and the Colonial Sphere ................................. 43 1.3.3 Sweden and the Agricultural Transformation ............................. 45 1.3.4 Contrasting States before the Industrial Breakthrough ............... 47 1.4 Structure and Contents of the Dissertation ......................................... 48 CHAPTER 2. Reading Eighteenth-Century News ........................................ 50 2.1 Publications and Styles before Modernity .......................................... 50 2.1.1 Gazetting and the Official Word ................................................. 55 2.1.2 Two Swedish Papers and Changing Regimes ............................. 56 2.1.3 Other Voices and Analyses ......................................................... 58 2.2 Forms of Stability and State Legitimacy ............................................ 60 Advertisements ............................................................................... 67 Articles ........................................................................................... 68 Letters ............................................................................................. 68 Lists ................................................................................................ 69 Notices ............................................................................................ 70 Proclamations ................................................................................. 70 Tables: Numbers and People .......................................................... 71 Other Category ............................................................................... 71 2.2.1 Connecting Forms to the Research Aims ................................... 72 2.3 Organization and Order ...................................................................... 72 2.3.1 International and Domestic News Ordering ............................... 72 2.4 Legitimacy and the State Voice ........................................................... 74 2.4.1 Indicating Trustworthiness through Presentation ....................... 74 2.4.2 Assessing Content and Defining the Value Realms .................... 78 2.4.3 Selecting the Reviewed Material and Translations ..................... 80 2.5 Analyzing Newspapers for Economic Matters ................................... 82 CHAPTER 3. 1770–1775: Towards Coups and Revolutions ........................ 83 3.1 A Mid-Eighteenth Century World in View ......................................... 83 3.1.1 Troubles in the Colonies and at Home for Britain ...................... 85 3.1.2 Growing Autocracy and Agricultural Change in Sweden .......... 86 3.1.3 Structure of the Chapter .............................................................. 89 3.2 Transforming Eighteenth-Century Publications ................................. 89 3.2.1 Confronting Press Restrictions with More News ....................... 89 3.2.2 Competition and Limits for the British Press ............................. 91 3.2.3 Censorship and Controlled Media in Sweden ............................ 92 3.2.4 Representative Editions from 1770–75 ...................................... 93 London Gazette: December 1773 ................................................... 94 Post-Tidningar: January 1771 ........................................................ 95 Inrikes Tidningar: January 1771 ..................................................... 97 3.2.5 Equilibrium between Domestic and International ...................... 98 3.3 Economic News from Empire to Potatoes .......................................... 98 3.3.1 Politics, Deluded Rebels, and Sugar in Britain .......................... 99 Economic and Political News near the American Revolt ............... 99 Social and Economic Connections with Political Touches .......... 104 Separating Economic Matters and Foreign Goods ....................... 108 3.3.2 Good Intentions and a Day’s Work in Sweden ......................... 110 Economic Matters and the Domestic Perspective ........................ 110 Political Actions, Social and Economic Consequences ................ 113 Social and Economic Matters with the Political........................... 116 3.3.3 Harvests, Harbours,