Bailiffs shaped Scania’s transition to Sweden
When Scania became Swedish in 1658, the state faced a difficult problem: how was it to collect taxes from a population that lacked trust in the new authorities and lived in a war-ravaged region? The answer lay not primarily in laws, the military or central control – but in the local bailiffs and their networks.
Kim Olsen’s doctoral thesis in history shows that the Swedish state only succeeded in establishing a functioning tax system in Scania once the bailiffs’ staff were professionalised and given clear rules for their work.
– Efficiency increased markedly from the 1680s, when Swedish law was fully introduced and new instructions began to govern how taxes were to be assessed, accounted for and collected. That was when bureaucracy – in practice everyday paperwork, routines and control – really began to work, says Kim Olsen.
Dependent on the local community
At the same time, the thesis highlights something that is often overlooked: the state could not manage on its own. The bailiffs depended on credit from the local community in order to deliver tax revenues in cash. Burghers, clergy and unennobled officials acted as lenders and guarantors.
– Without these economic networks, the system of tax collection would not have functioned. The state was therefore deeply interwoven with the local community, rather than an external power unilaterally ruling from above.
Slow change
One thing that surprised Kim Olsen was how slow the change was. Although Scania formally became Swedish in 1658, it took several decades before the tax collection system in practice became fully Swedish.
– For a long time, Danish and Swedish arrangements existed side by side. The process of Swedification was not a sudden break, but a prolonged process in which old working methods persisted.
The thesis shows how state formation actually took place in everyday life. It nuances the image of the Swedish great power state as highly centralised and instead demonstrates how dependent the state was on local actors, relationships and trust.
– I hope that the thesis contributes to a better understanding of how states are formed in practice. Not only through decisions at the highest level, but through people, networks and everyday administrative work, says Kim Olsen.
The doctoral thesis Fogdarna, byråkratin och nätverken. Uppbördsväsendets utveckling i Skåne 1658–1700 (Bailiffs, Bureaucracy and Networks) will be defended at a public defence on 30 January at 13:15 in Lisebergssalen (C350) at Humanisten, Renströmsgatan 6, Gothenburg.
It is freely available online: https://hdl.handle.net/2077/90174
Text: Johanna Hillgren
Contact:
Kim Olsen, tel. +46 (0)73-723 95 10, email: kim.olsen@gu.se