Connecting the Baltic Area Connecting The establishment in Europe of a postal service revolutionized seventeenth century communications as well as the media landscape. Throughout most of Europe news, which rose sharply in volume, now the Baltic Area traveled expeditiously. The comparative ease by which word could be sent helped new social and economic relationships flourish, intensifying the process of state-building. The consequences of this transformation for both postal workers and consumers alike permeate the work contained. The Swedish Postal System The Post’s historical role must be considered in the context of European in the Seventeenth Century society at large. Focus should move away from its organization and development as an institution in isolation. That is the perspective shared by contributors to this anthology. Edited by Heiko Droste Edited by Heiko Droste Södertörns högskola Biblioteket [email protected] S-141 89 Huddinge www.sh.se/publications CONNECTING THE BALTIC AREA The Swedish Postal System in the Seventeenth Century Editor Heiko Droste Södertörns högskola Södertörns högskola SE-141 89 Huddinge 2011 www.sh.se/publications Book Cover Image: Detail from an oil painting of a Postman on Horseback (Postryttare), painted in the 1840s by artist and army officer John Georg Arsenius (1818–1903). The original is housed at Postmuseum, Stockholm. Cover: Jonathan Robson Graphic Design: Per Lindblom Printed by E-print, Stockholm 2011 Södertörn Studies in History 9 ISSN 1653-2147 Södertörn Academic Studies 42 ISSN 1650-433X ISBN 978-91-86069-23-0 Contents Map of the Baltic Area with Postal Routes 6 Towns and Cities 9 Abbreviations, State Institutions, Coinages, Dates 10 Acknowledgements 13 Introduction 15 Magnus Linnarsson The Development of the Swedish Post Office, c. 1600–1721 25 Örjan Simonson The Swedish Empire and Postal Communications: Speed 49 and Time in the Swedish Post Office, c. 1680–1720 Enn Küng Johan Lange’s Inspection of the Estonian and Livonian Postal 99 Systems, 1687–88 Heiko Droste The Terms of Royal Service: Post Servants’ Finances, c. 1700 123 Marianne Larsson Livery Coat, Postal Horn, and the National Coat of Arms 175 Kekke Stadin News, Trust and Paris Fashion 197 Literature 211 Index 223 Map of the Baltic Area with Postal Routes, p. 6-7: Source: General Charta öfwer Swerige: förfärdigad wid Kongl: Lantmäteri Contoiret år 1706, Lantmäteriverket; "Underrättelse om Postgången uti Kongl. Recidensen Stockholm, med hosfogad Breftaxa" and "Utdrag af Kongl. Maj:ts underskrefne Post-taxor och andra förordningar [...]”, in Kongelige och andra wederbörandes förordningar angående postväsendet (1707); Forssell 1936, p. 90-91; Heurgren 1964, p. 14; Lundin 1998; Längs Nordens äldsta postvägar, 2004. 5 Towns and Cities In this volume we have referred to towns and cities by the names in use in the early modern period. Those where the spelling has subsequently altered or the name has changed completely are listed below, followed by their modern or English equivalents. Åbo Turku Arensburg Kuressaare Borgå Porvoo Danzig Gdańsk Dorpat Tartu Dünamünde Daugavgrīva Fokenhoff Voka Goldingen Kuldīga Göteborg Gothenburg Hapsal Haapsalu Helsingfors Helsinki Helsingør Elsinore Kexholm Приозерск Käkisalmi Königsberg Калининград Kaliningrad Libau Liepaja Lohusu Lohusuu Memel Klaipeda Mitau Jelgava Nargön Naissaar Neuhausen Vastselinna Nyen Санкт-Петербург St. Petersburg Pernau Pärnu Reval Tallinn Stettin Szczecin Tackerort Tahkuranna Tavastehus Hämeenlinna Uleåborg Oulu Viborg Выборг Vyborg Waddemois Vaimõisa Wekelax Hamina Wenden Cēsis Wesenberg Rakvere Wilna Vilnius Wolmar Valmiera Wulf Aegna 9 Abbreviations, State Institutions, Coinages, Dates Abbreviations AOSB Axel Oxenstiernas skrifter och brevväxling (The works and correspon- dence of Axel Oxenstierna) EAA Estonian Historical Archives K. Maj:t Kunglig Majestät, King in Council KB Kungliga biblioteket (National Library of Sweden) LVVA Latvian State Historical Archives ÖPD Överpostdirektörens arkiv (Archive of the post’s General Director) PM Postmuseum (Swedish Postal Museum) RA Riksarkivet (Swedish National Archives) RR Riksregistraturet (The government’s registry) SRP Svenska riksrådets protokoll (Protocols of the Council) UUB Uppsala University Library (Carolina Rediviva) State Institutions Board for Public Lands and Funds Kammarkollegiet Board of Mines Bergskollegium Board of Trade Kommerskollegium Board of War Krigskollegiet Chancery Audit Board Kammarrevisionen Chancery Board Kanslikollegiet Exchequer Board Statskontoret Coinage daler kopparmynt dr (lit. copper dollar) daler silvermynt dr sm (lit. silver dollar) krona Kr (lit. crown, the Swedish krona) mil Swedish mile, today ten kilometers, was 10,668 km between 1649–1889 öre 1/100th of a krona riksdaler rdr (lit. dollar of the realm, from Reichstaler) runstyck rst (lit. round piece) uns ounce 10 Dates All dates in this book are given in the old style. Sweden only converted to the Gregorian calendar in 1753. The Julian calendar lagged ten days behind the Gre- gorian, meaning that 1 May (O.S.) became 11 May (N.S.), and so on. Between 1700 and 1712, Sweden even had a unique calendar that lagged nine days behind the Gregorian calendar, the result of a decision to convert gradually to the Gre- gorian calendar but that had only just begun to be implemented before the re- turn to the old style in 1712. 11 Acknowledgements This book is the result of a long and fruitful collaboration between the members of a research project based at Södertörn University. Financed by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies (Östersjöstiftelsen), Kekke Stadin, Örjan Simonson, Magnus Linnarsson (né Olsson), and Heiko Droste worked on the project ‘The Seventeenth Century Media Revolution: Postal Service, News Ser- vice and the Postmasters’. The project started in 2006 and will be concluded in early 2011, when this book will be published, almost at the same time as Magnus Linnarsson’s thesis, Postgång på växlande villkor: Det svenska postväsendets organi- sation under stormaktstiden. As well as the wide-ranging and rewarding discussions within this project, its members organized two workshops, inviting other historians from Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, and Germany. This book therefore contains the re- sults of many debates, and we hope it will pave the way for many more. Postal history still struggles on the outskirts of academic history, despite its central role in the history of communications over the past four hundred years. The manuscript has been much improved by the astute comments of Per Bo- lin Hort and David Gaunt, as well as Södertörn University’s publication com- mittee. We received valuable advice as well as the means to publish the book in the University’s own series, Södertörn Studies in History and Södertörn Acade- mic Studies. Huddinge, 10 July 2010 Heiko Droste 13 Introduction Social relations are founded on a mutual conversation. Since antiquity, the letter has been understood as a form of this conversation; one that took place between absent people (sermo absentis ad absentem). To ensure this conversation, every kind of society needs a reliable postal system. This was true of ancient empires; it is still true of modern nation-states. Communication by written messages, sent via special envoy or regular messenger, is a criterion for a society’s interconnec- tedness on a personal level as well as a government’s ability to rule over its terri- tory. It is pivotal for all kinds of long-distance trade and intellectual debate. Po- stal systems are thus part of the very fabric of societies. As such, they are a sub- ject of abiding interest for scholars and enthusiasts. Studies of postal history generally focus on the post as a public institution, either run by the government or administered independently. Post historians de- scribe the organization, the objects, and its symbols as well as the local history of the post. In this research, the post as an institution, not to mention its relevance, seems self-evident from its very beginnings. The post brought a major improve- ment in the transport of letters that in Europe, for example, up to early modern times had been slow, frequently disrupted, and accessible to very few. However, most post historians describe this development without taking society as a whole into account, a perspective determined by their concern with the institution itself. In consequence, postal history long remained a self-contained historical subject that revolved around postal museums, journals of postal history, and a whole range of collectors’ societies (stamps, envelopes, uniforms, and the like). This lack of scholarly interest in society at large, whose very fabric changed with the introduction of postal services, marks most studies on the history of media and communications. In the mid twentieth century the so-called Toronto School emphasized the influence of all forms of communication on the structure of societies as well as on the psychology of individuals.1 These studies focused particularly on the importance of changes in communications due to technologi- cal innovations, paradigmatically the invention of the printing press in the mid fifteenth century, and the telegraph, radio, and television in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Marshall McLuhan congenially summarized this new pers- pective on media in the phrase: ‘The medium is the message’2 He too stresssed 1 Innis 1950/2007. 2 McLuhan 1962 and 1964. 15 CONNECTING THE BALTIC AREA the importance of technological innovation