Abstract

Sweden is a thinly populated country in northern Europe, out-stretched with a concentration in its southern part up to its capital Stockholm, situated by the lake Mälaren. Its political and economic history has largely been influenced by its position between Western and Eastern Europe, and its long coastline along the Baltic Sea. When Sweden was formed as a state in the eleventh century, it served as an exchange post – also as a producer of iron – in the lively trade with silver, slaves and goods between Western Europe and Imperial Persia. During the late Medieval period the main Swedish harbour cities became entangled within the great Hanseatic League, and its predominantly trade with iron was in the seventeenth century dominated by Dutch Merchants.